Living Up To A Legend
by The Old Rycr
Summary: [Code : Changes II] XANA was defeated and the antivirus was found. Now, 24 years later, the Lyoko gang is reunited, and their children go to Kadic Academy. They discover that some legends are completely true, and their own legend begins. FINALLY COMPLETE!
1. Fragments of Truth

_OMG! I was going to upload this hours ago! Then we had to have dinner, which took a while. After that, the servers were overloaded, then I finally got through to upload the document. When I tried to create a new story, I found out that the feature was temporarily disabled for a couple hours due to an update! I checked back later, only to learn that my internet connection had cut out entirely!_

_AARRGGHH! Well…anyway…I fixed the modem and the story's here now, and that's all that matters. Read the rest of my note if you feel like it or skip straight to the story, but keep in mind that this is a SEQUEL, so read the original (Code : Changes) first, if you haven't already. If you don't like Code : Changes, that doesn't mean you won't like this, since it'll be written a little differently. _

_Anyway…I'm surprised! Code : Changes was **WAY** more successful than I thought it would be. It also went in directions that I never thought it would. Heck, when I wrote a chapter, I wouldn't have the faintest idea what would happen in the next chapter! When I posted chapter 1, Kirsten didn't even exist in my mind yet! Then I decided to introduce her in chapter 2, and now she's a main character! _

_So, I decided to continue and write a sequel. I guarantee that this will be **MUCH** longer than Code : Changes was. _

_Anyway, here you go! I'll just get the legal stuff out of the way… _

**_Disclaimer: _**_I don't own Code Lyoko _

**_Claimer: _**_Let's see…I own Kirsten, John, Rena, Eric, Amy, Dan, and Nina. I also own this story. (duh!) Whew, that was a mouthful! _

_And, without further ado, I present chapter 1 of Living Up To A Legend. That's right, Code : Changes II has now begun! _

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_Chapter 1 – Fragments of Truth_

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Twenty four years ago, in the year 2005, six heroes saved the world. These six heroes had superpowers, and technology beyond anybody's imagination. They were great friends. They amazed everybody and became famous for what they did. They were just children at the time, one of them in 9th grade, the others in 8th.

They never forgot what they did. They were the greatest of friends all the way through college. Unfortunately, they aren't best friends any more. No, they don't hate each other. They just moved on. They graduated and got married. The group of six became three separate couples. They moved away, and became separated by thousands of miles.

But truly great friends cannot stay apart forever…

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Odd and Kirsten moved to California. **_(A/N: If you don't know who Kirsten is, read Code : Changes) _**Odd began to make movies. He did all the off-camera jobs. He even produced his movies, under the name of Carthage Productions. Nearly all of his movies were big hits, so they bought a mansion near San Ramon, in a little town called Danville. They were isolated from the rest of the town. Their house was high up in the hills. Kirsten had become an actress, and had starred in many of Odd's films, as well as several others.

They had two kids, Eric and Amy. Eric looked exactly like Odd, but his hair was gelled up into a bunch of small spikes. He inherited the natural purple spot just above his forehead, so a few of the spikes were purple. The rest were blond. Amy looked exactly like Kirsten. She had long brown hair and was very beautiful. The only difference was that she had several purple streaks in her hair. Everybody at their school, Charlotte Wood Middle School, though they were weird, but they didn't care what other people thought.

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Ulrich and Yumi had moved to New York City. Both of them became hit singers, and Yumi also became a model. They lived in a mansion in the suburbs of New York City. They toured around the country, singing and, in Yumi's case, modeling. They were always together. They topped the charts, and after a year, became a two-person band. They called themselves the Lyokophiles **_(A/N: My tribute to all Code Lyoko fanatics, also known as lyokophiles)_**, as a small inside joke that only they and their old friends would understand.

Eventually, they settled down, when their two kids were ten years old. They still sang. They recorded albums, and sang live only near their home. Their two children were named John and Rena. John looked exactly like Ulrich. Most girls swooned for him after he turned 13 and started 8th grade. He never found the one for him though. Many guys were in love with Rena as well, who looked exactly like Yumi. She never found the right person either.

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Jeremie and Aelita stayed in France, not because they had to, but because they couldn't bring themselves to leave. There were many memories, happy and sad, of that place. They lived in a huge house about twenty minutes away from the school, isolated in a huge forest. **_(A/N: No, not the forest with the Hermitage)_ **They had become rich after developing the first 128-bit computer processor during College. They sold the idea to Intel. Then they started a videogame company called SCIPIO Games. Aelita also worked occasionally as a model in addition to helping Jeremie.

They had two children as well. They were named Dan and Nina. Dan looked exactly like his father, but he didn't need glasses. He had blond hair, and was often made fun of and called a geek, nerd, and other names. He didn't care though. Nina was also very smart, but other students of her school overlooked that because she was so pretty. Her natural bright-pink hair fell to the middle of her back. Many guys wanted to go out with her, but she didn't notice or care, too caught up with school.

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**March 29, 2029**

"And they lived happily ever after." Kirsten closed the book and looked at the front, smiling slightly. She shook her head as she stared ata group picture of all six of them in front of the factory, shortly after Lyoko was shut down. It was on the cover of all of the books in the series.

She looked back up at the kids. "So, how did you like it?"

Eric smiled. "It was awesome! All the monsters and action and stuff!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I liked it too. Wouldn't it be cool if that really happened?"

Eric smiled. "Yeah! I wanna go fight monsters too!"

"Eric, trust me, you don't have any idea what it would be like…" Kirsten trailed off, remembering Lyoko and the battles that they had fought. After the show about themwas cancelled, Kirsten had taken her diary and rewritten it like a story. Eventually, the others had given her parts of their diaries from before she had arrived, and she was able to write a complete story from the discovery of Lyoko to XANA's final attack.

She had just finished reading the final part to her children. She had worked on it for years, and had ended up with a huge series of books. It was a long saga, but it was finally finished. She had published three sets, one for each family: Ulrich and Yumi, Jeremie and Aelita, and finally one for Odd and herself. She had mailed them recently, since everybody had moved away and lost contact for a while. Since they were all famous, their addresses could be found easily, given access to a computer.

She smiled as she tucked her children in, reminiscing about good and bad times during the war against XANA. It had definitely been an interesting year for her.

"Hey mom?" Eric interrupted her musings as she was about to turn off the light. She turned around.

"Yes?"

"Is that where dad got the name of his company from? Carthage?"

A small smile appeared on her face and she rubbed the back of her neck. "Um...well...yeah..."

She turned off the light and closed the door as the two children began to dream of battles and glory in the fictional world of their mother's books.

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**March 31, 2029**

Dan and Nina were exploring outside. Dan had wanted to go look around. He had seen the two mansions that were being built next door to theirs.

So, with their parents' permission, they left the house. The construction workers weren't there, so they explored the two mansions a bit and walked around in the forest that surrounded their soon-to-be neighborhood.

Dan looked at his sister as they arrived back on their front porch. "So, who do you think is moving in?"

"I don't know. They have to be rich, like us, to afford a house like that...maybe they are celebrities!"

"Um...right...sure..." Dan rolled his eyes and ran inside before Nina could come up with a witty remark and stopped in front of his father, Jeremie.

"Hey Dad, those two mansions will probably be done before I start school again, right?"

"Yes…maybe we'll have some neighbors your age that you can have fun with!"

Aelita walked past and overheard Jeremie. She stopped and grinned. "Or a girl your age that you can have '_fun'_ with!"

Dan rolled his eyes. "Come on Mom! This is one of those things that teens _don't_ like to talk about!"

She smiled, then sat down. "Of course! I know that! I haven't always been old. I was once a teenager too. Trust me, I know what it feels like not to want to talk about something."

Jeremie laughed. "Like Lyoko, right?" His eyes went wide, and he stopped. "Um, forget I said that…"

Nina raised an eyebrow. "You mean the story? Or the Lyokophiles? What do they have to do with anything?"

Aelita smiled staring off into space. "A lot…"

Dan looked up, confused. "Do you know the Lyokophiles or something?"

Jeremie mimicked his wife, remembering. "A long time ago…"

Dan and Nina, whohad just caught up,looked at each other, wide-eyed, and shrugged.

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**June 20th, 2029**

"Aw…come on Dad! Why do we have to move to France?"

Ulrich looked down at his son. He smiled as he said "Well, to tell you the truth, I lived in France for a while when I was your age. I loved it there. We switched to a new record company. Their headquarters is in France. We found some really nice property in a forest. They finished building our house last month."

"But I like it here!"

"Well, I'm sorry. This will probably be the last time we move, at least until after you have graduated from College and gotten your own place."

"What about my friends?"

"It's okay. You'll make new ones. I had to…speaking of which, you'll be going to a private boarding school called Kadic Academy. That's where I went before."

"WHAT?" Rena had walked in half-way through the conversation.

Ulrich smiled again. "Trust me. You'll have fun. I sure did! Anyway, it's too late now…"

Yumi stepped in. "That's right. We're going to stay in a hotel starting tomorrow night, since the movers are coming tomorrow. We leave for France a week later. Our stuff will already be there, so we'll go straight in."

"And I know you guys speak fluent French, so you won't have much trouble fitting in."

Rena looked up. "Oh, so _that's_ why you taught us French! Uh oh, you taught us Japanese too…"

"No, we're not going to Japan any time soon. All of our relatives are in France. We taught you French before visiting your grandparents, don't you remember? None of them speak any English. Your mom's parents speak French and Japanese, and my parents speak French and German."

"So, why can't we stay here longer? And why didn't you teach us German?"

Ulrich smiled. "First: I already told you. Second, we figured that being trilingual is enough. I don't even know the word for someone who speaks four...quadrilingual? No...maybe not..."

"Oh…fine…" John left the room, sulking. Rena left too, rolling her eyes at John's expression. Yumi looked at them, and chuckled softly.

"What?" Ulrich turned to her.

"Nothing. He just reminded me of you, back when we were at Kadic. He looked exactly like you did whenever you sulked, like when William tried to kiss me."

"Yeah, and Rena looked like you after one of Odd's wisecracks."

"Or one of yours."

They both laughed. Ulrich was the first one to catch his breath. "Wow…I really do miss the gang…Well, anyway, we better pack our suitcases."

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Odd and Kirsten sat in the dining room with their children.

"Okay, so are you sure you're fine with moving to France?"

Eric shrugged. He was pretty laid back. "Yeah, sure. But why are we going? You still haven't told us!"

Kirsten explained. "Well, your father was thinking of filming another movie. He wanted to Film several locations in France. Since we'll be there for a really long time, we thought we might as well move there and enroll you at Kadic Academy."

Amy looked up. "Academy…that sounds like a private school."

Odd grinned. "Yeah, that's where I went. Don't worry though. There aren't any uniforms or anything stupid like that."

Both of the children relaxed a bit. Odd was happy that his children were okay with moving. It would be a big change, but not as big as when he himself had moved to France. His kids had been taking French classes since elementary school, and could now speak it fluently. _He_ himself had to get by knowing only three curse words in French for a year,when he first went to Kadic Academy. And, of course, curse words weren't all that useful for normal conversation, so he had been a loner for a while.

"Anyway, the movers come tomorrow, and we leave for France next week."

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**June 28th, 2029**

"Dad?"

"Yes Eric?"

"Why are we landing? We haven't passed over any water yet!"

"We have a short stop in New York City, before we go overseas."

"Oh, okay."

Odd smiled and leaned back in his seat. He was extremely comfortable in the first-class seat. Being rich certainly had advantages. His family took up one of the two rows of four seats in first-class. The other four seats had been taken by various people, all businessmen. He had tried to book a private plane, but things hadn't worked out properly and he had ended up on a commercial flight.

The plane reached the terminal and the four people in the rowbehind them got off.

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The Sterns arrived at the airport very late. They wanted to avoid spending too much time waiting for the plane, because they were always followed by mobs of fans whenever they were in a public place.

Unfortunately, this meant they had to run to the gate to make it on time.

They reached the gate without incident just as people began to board. They got in line, gave the attendant their tickets, and walked towards the plane before he could see their names on their tickets.

Being famous was not always a good thing, and they had decided to take a commercial plane since it was so difficult to hire a good private plane that would fly overseas to France.

They reached the plane and walked down the aisle into the business-class section. Suddenly, Ulrich and Yumi stopped, their two kids bumping into them.

There was a man sitting in the row in front of theirs. He was wearing all purple, and his blond hair was gelled up into a spike. Ulrich stared at him, astonished.

_No way…_

Yumi noticed too, just before a boy sitting in the seat on the other side of the aisle lookedback and saw them. He was remarkably similar to the man. His hair was in multiple short spikes, and two of the spikes right in front of his head were purple.

"Hey dad! It's the Lyokophiles!"

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_Yes, I know. I know what you're thinking: "Stupid cliffie!" right? Don't worry. Chapter 2 will be up in a day or two._

_That is, if you review…_

_I've been thinking of having previews for the next chapter at the end of every chapter, but I'll only do it if I get a certain amount of reviews on the previous chapter, so that gives you a very good reason to review._

_Anyway, today is your lucky day, because the first preview is free:_

"Hi, I live in the house next door and, well, since I'll be your neighbor, I decided to introduce myself. I'm––" He heard a muffled gasp and looked up to see who opened the door. "Oh my god!"

_And with that juicy tidbit, I leave you with a final word:_

_**REVIEW!**_


	2. Friendships Reborn

_AWESOME! I got a whole load of reviews! 11 in one day! Not only that, but I haven't gotten any negative reviews! Anyway, here's chapter two. Chapter three will be up probably tomorrow, to celebrate New Years._

_So…legal stuff first…_

_**Disclaimer:** Okay, if I owned Code Lyoko, would I be writing fanfics about it? No. I would be pulling all-nighters with the rest of Moonscoop to bring you season 3 as soon as possible. Ulrich and Yumi would have gotten together in Season 1. Aelita and Jeremie would have gotten together after "XANA's Kiss" since they kissed and all…_

_Well, I've rambled on enough about that. Here's the rest of it._

_**Claimer: **I own…Kirsten, John, Rena, Eric, Amy, Dan, Nina, and this story. _

_One more thing, I've been putting the date in bold at the start of some sections to let you know what date some things are happening on. I'll stop doing that after this chapter, because I know I'll spread everything out too far and reach the end of the school year before I should._

_Now, on to the story!_

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_Chapter 2 – Friendships Reborn_

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**_FLASHBACK (chapter 1):_**

_There was a man sitting in the row in front of theirs. He was wearing all purple, and his blond hair was gelled up into a spike. Ulrich had noticed him first._

_No way…_

_Yumi noticed too, just before a boy sitting in the seat on the other side of the aisle looked up and saw them. He was remarkably similar to the man. His hair was in multiple short spikes, and two of the spikes right in front of his head were purple._

"_Hey dad! It's the Lyokophiles!"_

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Odd chuckled to himself. The name reminded him of good times in Lyoko, and his friends from years ago. He became serious again and looked over at his son. "What are you talking about? Why would they be _here_?"

"Cat-boy? Is it really you?" Odd gasped and looked up when he heard the familiar nickname. "Samurai? Geisha?" He smiled and jumped up.

"Ulrich! Yumi! Good to see you! I haven't seen you in years!"

"Same to you, Odd. You too Kirsten."

Odd and Kirsten exchanged hugs with them. Ulrich and Yumi sat in the seats in front of them and started to talk. Eric stood up and whispered to his dad.

"_You_ actually _know_ them?"

He laughed. "Know them? Heck, they were my best friends in school! They still are!"

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John and Rena sat in their seats talking to one another.

"Can you believe it? Our parents know the owner of Carthage Productions!"

Eric and Amy were talking as well.

"Can you believe it? Our parents know the Lyokophiles!"

All four of them started talking to each other excitedly and became fast friends.

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"So, why are you guys going to France?"

Ulrich smiled. "Well, we got an offer from a record company in France that we just can't refuse. What about you?"

"Well, I'm filming my next movie there. We'll be there for a while, so I decided to just move there." Odd grinned. "Oh, and I'm not telling you what it's about, at least not yet. You'll definitely like it though. I'm going to start scouting locations in a few months, after we settle in. We had a mansion built a while ago about a half-hour away from our old school. The address is…"

He recited the address to Ulrich. He looked up to see Ulrich staring at him with wide eyes. He was completely silent.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. It's just…I live on the same street!"

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**June 29th, 2029**

"Jeremie! You know the two new houses? The new owners are here!"

"Coming Aelita!" He saved his work on his computer, then shut it down. He ran down the stairs and to the front door. He saw two cars drive up the road. The first car went left, the second one went right.

Jeremie knew that their stuff had already been moved in during the past few days. He was happy to meet some new people, but sad at the same time. He liked his quiet, isolated life. He only saw other people when he took his kids to and from school.

This year, however, his kids would go to Kadic Academy. Both Dan and Nina were happy to go to such a prestigious private school, and they wanted to get away from their parents for a while too. Jeremie and Aelita decided that it was worth the money to get the kids out of their hair for a while, not that they needed to worry about money.

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Jeremie walked out of his house and walked to his left. He stopped at the front door and knocked.

The door opened and Jeremie started talking, hardly noticing who was there. "Hi, I live in the house next door and, well, since I'll be your neighbor, I decided to introduce myself. I'm––" He heard a muffled gasp and looked up to see who opened the door. "Oh my god! Yumi?"

"Jeremie! You're the one who lives next door?"

"Um…yeah…wow…that was unexpected…"

Yumi smiled and pulled him into a hug. She let go and called into the house. "Samurai! Guess who our new neighbor is!"

Ulrich walked slowly down the stairs. He didn't really feel like meeting new people, he was still tired from the long plane ride. He looked up, and his expression immediately changed.

"Oh my god! Einstein?" He ran up to him and pulled him into a one-armed hug. "How are you doing?"

"Great! So, you want to go meet the other neighbors?"

Ulrich and Yumi exchanged a glance. Ulrich grinned and responded to the question. "We've already met them, but I'm sure they'll want to see you again."

Jeremie frowned. "Again? Wait…no…can't be…is it really them?"

"Yeah, and you think _you're_ surprised? We met them again on the plane from New York! Anyway, let's say hi to Princess first, and bring her with us."

They all left, Jeremie shaking his head, muttering "No way…too coincidential…"

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Kirsten heard the doorbell ring. She shouted "I'll get it!" and ran to the door.

She opened it to find a group of four standing in front of her. She already knew that Ulrich and Yumi lived two doors down. She saw the other two people and gasped. Those glasses…that pink hair…

"No…way…is it really you guys?"

"Yeah, it's really us." Jeremie smiled. "Where's Odd?"

"I'll get him…CAT-BOY! OUR NEW NEIGHBORS ARE HERE!"

There was a loud crash followed by a yell. Then there were a series of thumps as Odd slid down the stairs and hit the floor, face first. He stood up slowly, holding his head, which sported a fresh bruise as well as several old ones from the other times he fell down the stairs.

"Argh, stupid first step. Stop doing that Kirsten!"

Aelita laughed. "Same old Odd."

Odd looked up in shock. "Woah! Aelita! Jeremie!" He ran up to the door and started a group hug. "I haven't seen you guys in years! You're our neighbors?"

Jeremie grinned. "Yes, we are. Glad to see you haven't changed."

He was right. Odd was still wearing his characteristic purple and pink clothes and yellow shoes. His hair still had a purple spot, and was still gelled up into a tall spike.

He examined them all one by one. Ulrich was still in green, but with blue jeans. Jeremie still had a blue sweater and beige pants that were too short. Aelita still wore pink.

"None of you guys have either, except for your hair…" Aelita's pink hair now hung down to her waist. Yumi's black hair was around the same length, and she had some red highlights. Ulrich's hair was a little longer now and was tied back with a bandana. Odd, Kirsten, and Jeremie were still exactly the same.

When Odd looked at Yumi again, he did a double-take. "Wow! Yumi, you're not wearing black!"

It was true; her black clothes were long gone. Now she wore a white t-shirt and jeans.

They all grinned and hugged each other. "It's so great to see you guys again!" they said in unison.

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_Yes, I know, it's **WAY** too coincidental, but just deal with it, okay? I'll eventually explain how they all ended up together, but not for a while._

_Anyway, how do you like it so far? Please review! Oh, I'm also planning a third story, but I think I'll stop this series there. I have four more chapters typed, but they all need some serious editing. I also have some (extremely) rough drafts written out for the next bunch of chapters after that. If you count the rough drafts, this story is already longer than Code : Changes!_

_I got a whole 11 reviews for the first chapter! That means another preview! Wow…I've never had that many reviews in one day…so here's your preview!_

Meanwhile, in an area of downtown London, a Crey supercomputer turned on. The operating system logo appeared for a moment. It was quickly replaced by a symbol that only six people in the world could recognize.

_Okay, here's a poll. If I decided to screw around with the couples of my story, which would you prefer:_

_1) Ulrich and Kirsten, Jeremie and Yumi, Odd and Aelita_

_2) Ulrich and Aelita, Jeremie and Kirsten, Odd and Yumi_

_Don't worry, they're married and they're staying that way. I am just curious about which sounds better to you guys._


	3. Always Have A Backup

_HAPPY NEW YEARS! To celebrate, I'm uploading 2 chapters at once! I'll probably update really often for a while, with a small slow spot after chapter 6 since I haven't even typed the rest of the chapters yet. I finally have a general plotline laid out for this story, so there shouldn't be any really long waits._

_Anyway, I got another 7 reviews, and I decided to give previews with a minimum of 5, so look for that at the end of the next chapter._

_**Disclaimer: **Okay, once again, I do not own Code Lyoko, and unless a miracle happens, I never will._

_**Claimer:** I own Kirsten and all of the children of the gang. There, that's much easier than saying all of their names…_

_Now, on to the story. This chapter's pretty much just a filler, with a couple interesting bits in it._

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_Chapter 3 – Always Have A Backup_

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Over the rest of the summer, the adults spent a lot of time together, catching up and reminiscing about old times. They talked about many Lyoko battles. Odd reminded them that if it weren't for Kirsten, he'd be dead.

Their children overheard some of their conversations. They would hear things like "There were three crabs, so I triplicated and supersprinted towards them. I jumped up and bam! All three were gone." All three of them would remember the story that they liked so much (Eric and Amy eventually told their friends that their mom wrote it), and wonder why they acted as if they had actually been there.

Needless to say, the children often asked their parents what they were talking about. Their parents would never be able to respond, so they just trailed off. Once, they got an unusually clear answer from Odd, who was getting annoyed by their questioning.

"Fine! I'll tell you! It was a game that we played as kids. We made up costumes and superpowers, and created our own little world to play in. We had so many fun times back then."

The six kids became best friends, and were inseparable, despite their differences. Living next door to each other, they spent all of their free time together. They explored the forest that surrounded their house, and had a lot of fun.

Then their first year at Kadic Academy started. When they found out that they would be going to the same school, they were ecstatic.

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"So Rena, make sure you don't get into any trouble. Oh, and sometimes you're allowed to go off campus after school is over, but don't go explore anywhere that looks unsafe, such as construction sites and abandoned buildings."

Rena sighed. She always got the same sort of speech whenever she left home. It was identical, word-for-word. She had memorized it by now.

Ulrich smiled as he turned to his son. "That goes for you too, John. Now, both of you get into the car."

The kids ran out the door, and Yumi was about to follow them when Ulrich grabbed her arm and pulled her into a kiss.

It was just a short kiss, but it lasted forever. Yumi eventually pulled away. "Hold that thought. We need to go now."

"Right." Both of them got into the car and drove off.

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They arrived at the school and saw the others waiting in a short line in front of the Principal's office. They joined in. Aelita and Kirsten were talking.

"Hey Kirsten, remember when you first came to Kadic? It was great having you as a roommate."

"Yeah, and there was an attack and you guys went back in time."

The kids looked at each other for a moment, and shrugged. An attack? Going back in time? This was more stuff that was mentioned in the story that Kirsten had written. Why did they talk about it all the time?

"Yes. Then Cat-boy here came up to you and showed you around."

_Cat-boy?_ All of the kids were now thoroughly confused. Their parents had random nonsense nicknames for each other, which once again reminded them of that story that they all loved.

"He knew my name before I met him, and my love for him began that day. Of course, I didn't know if he would love me back…"

Odd just smiled. "I did!"

Jeremie butted in. "Come on guys, we're next."

All six of the adults walked into the office, followed by their children.

Yumi stopped and stared. The principal was…

"William?" The man looked up in shock. "Yumi?"

She smiled. "Hey! How are you doing? I haven't seen you since I graduated from Kadic!"

"Well, I found somebody else that I was crazy about––"

"Hello dear!"

Now Ulrich was the one who was surprised. Someone he knew had just walked in.

"Sissi?" She turned. "Oh! Ulrich! It's Elizabeth now. I haven't seen you in years! How are you doing?" She saw his confused expression and laughed. "Oh, don't worry, I eventually moved on after you and Yumi started dating. And then I became great friends with William…and then more than friends."

Yumi smiled. "Well, I'm happy for you! I always thought you two would suit each other!"

Then William and Sissi noticed the other adults and the kids. Sissi smiled, then frowned. "Oh, hey guys! Listen, I never got the chance to say this before we left Kadic, but I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused you. I was…I was really mean, and I'm sorry."

The others grinned. Odd spoke up first. "I accept your apology, and I'm sorry we made fun of you all the time." He looked around at the others and sighed. "

All of the adults laughed while all the kids rolled their eyes. They were sick of waiting. William saw them and smiled. "Okay, here are your dorm assignments. Have a nice day!"

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Their parents had specifically requested that they got to room together since they were so inseparable. Since there were three girls and three boys, they were put in two 3-person dorms.

John, Eric, and Dan each claimed a bed, and Dan began unpacking his computer and setting it up. John and Eric decided not to touch it. It was a very complicated setup, and they didn't want to screw it up. They were sitting on John's bed and talking.

"So, Eric, isn't it great that all three of us are in the same room?"

"Yeah, and to think that a few months ago we didn't even know each other! Now look! We're the best of friends!"

"You know what else is cool? All of our parents are rich and famous!"

Eric raised an eyebrow. "Really? I know my parents are, and yours are the Lyokophiles. What about Dan?"

Dan turned around. "My parents co-founded SCIPIO Games, and my mom is a model."

John nodded. "My mom is too. But she doesn't do it much any more. They're singers now."

Eric leaned forward. "So your parents really are the Lyokophiles?"

"Yeah. Your dad is really the owner of CARTHAGE Productions?"

"Uh-huh."

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Meanwhile, in an area of downtown London, a Cray supercomputer turned on. The operating system logo appeared for a moment. It was quickly replaced by a symbol that only six people in the world could recognize.

The computer connected to every open node on the internet to gain power, then forced a connection to a small automated elevator control system in an abandoned factory in France.

A black smoke came out of the buttons of the elevator and slowly floated out through the floor into the shaft, then through a wall. It reached a huge room. It dove down through a closed panel in the floor and reached a huge cylinder.

The smoke flipped a switch on the side of the machine, and the computer system began to glow a familiar golden color. The smoke dissolved and disappeared.

A screen on another level flashed, then displayed a series of messages:

_**RE-INITIALIZING LYOKO SYSTEM…FAILED**_

_**INITIALIZATION FAILED, DATA MISSING**_

_**RESTORING SYSTEM FROM MOST RECENT BACKUP…COMPLETE**_

_**RESTORATION SUCCESSFUL, INITIALIZING LYOKO SYSTEM…COMPLETE**_

_**LOADING SYSTEM RESOURCES…**_

_**SCANNERS…ONLINE**_

_**INTERFACE…ONLINE**_

_**WORLD…ONLINE**_

_**INITIALIZATION COMPLETE**_

The circular machine near the screen began to hum, and a hologram appeared above it. It looked like a map of a place with four regions coming out of a central sphere. Several windows appeared on the screen, some filling with code, others with images, one of them had an image of the holomap.

A presence reappeared in the computer system. It was an older version, but the computer in London began to transfer information to it, updating its memory so it knew about all of the events that had taken place after the backup. It sorted the memory and examined the data starting from the time the girl had joined its 5 enemies, making them a group of 6. Six faces appeared in its memory and were catalogued.

If a face for this presence had existed, it would have been smiling sinisterly. The six people who had halted its plan would be killed, and then the plan could proceed. The world would be ripped into pieces.

And from those pieces, a new world would be born.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

_MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! And the action begins!_

_WHEEEEEEEE! SUGAR IS AWESOME!_

_My super-sugar-high is crashing, so I'll have to finish fast before my sanity finds me again and reclaims my mind, returning me to boring mediocrity. Don't worry, I was only high on sugar for this little author's note, not for the story itself._

_Oh, and I think that this will be the end of the coincidences for a while._

_Anyway, no preview because chapter 4 is already up by the time you read this, so go read that and look for the preview of chapter 5!_


	4. A Slip of the Tongue

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own Code Lyoko_

_**Claimer:** I own Kirsten and the kids._

_Okay, let's just go straight to the story, since I haven't gotten any reviews in the few seconds since I posted chapter 3.._

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_Chapter 4 – A Slip of the Tongue_

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Rena sighed. She hated to resort to this, but she pulled out a hairpin and started picking the lock.

Her brother and Eric refused to answer the door, so she was going to take matters into her own hands. She smiled as the lock clicked. She pulled open the door and a blast of sound hit her.

She looked around, wondering where the trainwreck was, then she saw Eric with his mouth wide open. She sighed again and walked over to him.

She shook him hard and his eyes opened slightly. The noise stopped. "What?"

"Our parents are coming for an open house!"

"What? What about an eloping mouse?"

Rena rolled her eyes. "Open house is today. Our parents arrive in an hour. I figured you'd like to get ready." She looked over at John and noticed he was still sleeping. Dan was already gone.

She walked over to him and yelled "JOHN!" as loud as she could, but he didn't wake up. She hated to resort to this, but she drew her fist back and socked him in the arm. His deap breathing stopped and his eyes opened a crack, but she didn't notice.

As her fist flew towards him again, his arm blurred, and he was holding her fist in his hand. She smiled. "Ah, if you know it's coming, you can block it. If you don't know that it's––" She suddenly stopped and her fist went for his face. He caught it again and frowned.

"Can you leave the _silat _practice until later? I'd rather not have to spar with you today, if it's all the same to you. What are you doing here?"

Eric piqued up. "Something about an eloping mouse!"

Rena glared at him, and he shrugged. She turned back to her brother. "Open house is today, and our parents get here in an hour."

John nodded and pulled on a green t-shirt as his sister left. He put on a pair of jeans as well. Eric eventually started moving and got dressed too.

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The six of them stood outside waiting for their parents. Eric took a quick glance at all of them and chuckled to himself. "Hey! We look like a rainbow!"

The others rolled their eyes, but it was true. Rena was wearing red. Eric was wearing yellow. John was wearing green. Amy was wearing blue. Dan was wearing black and Nina was wearing white. Eric looked at the two of them and chuckled again. "Well, you two are boring, but the rest of us are like––"

He suddenly heard five voices say "Shut up Eric."

"Hey! Now why does that sound familiar?" The six turned and saw their parents walking towards them. Odd looked as if he was trying to remember something. Ulrich chuckled. "Maybe because you've heard it so many times. Does 'shut up Odd' ring a bell?"

Odd raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, it actually does! I wonder why?" He grinned at the others.

All five of the other adults rolled their eyes. Odd had never really grown up. Sure, he was older, but he was still as joking and sarcastic as he had been years ago. He still pulled numerous pranks on everybody, but they were more devious than ever.

The twelve of them left, the kids showing their parents the classes they were in.

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As they walked out of one class, Odd smiled slightly. "Wow! I can't believe that Mrs. Hertz is still here! I thought that old bat would have kicked the bucket by now! That just goes to show––"

Kirsten clamped a hand over his mouth. "Shut up Odd." Everybody chuckled slightly at the familiar phrase as Kirsten continued. "Remember, you're 37 now! You can't talk like that any more! Act your age!"

He grinned sheepishly. "Why? I never did before!

All of the adults laughed. "Well, true…say, I wonder if Jim is still here!"

All six kids laughed slightly as Rena turned around. "Well, his son took over for him, but he's still here. He's just a bit––"

Suddenly, an old man shuffled out from behind the garden shed nearby. "Who said my name?" He saw the six adults, specifically Odd. One look at his giant spike of hair and the man had his face in his hands. "Oh no…no no no no. Not you again! I thought you were gone for good! This school has enough troublemakers as it is!"

All of the adults snickered quietly as they remembered Odd's antics at Kadic. He had pulled ingenious pranks on everybody, student and staff alike. Most of the pranks were, of course, directed at Sissi or Jim. Needless to say, he had also spent a lot of time in detention, for nearly every offence possible.

Ulrich smiled. "Yeah, I don't know how you could be so smart and cunning when you were pranking Sissi or Jim, yet so stupid in school!"

"Hey! I passed!"

"Barely."

The old man, who was actually Jim, was still rambling on. "I know you're hiding something! I'll find out one day!" With that, he shuffled around the corner and away. The six adults looked at each other in complete silence and burst out laughing.

Odd finally calmed down enough to say something. "Hahahaha…whew! 'Jimbo' is still here! It's nice to be remembered for _something_. I just wish nobody had forgotten about Lyo––mmph!"

Kirsten had covered his mouth again. She leaned close and whispered in his ear. "Shut up! We don't want them to find out about it! If anybody finds out…"

"Mmph! Mmm mmph!" Kirsten removed her hand and Odd repeated what he had tried to say. "Oops! Sorry! It was just a…a slip of the tongue…"

The other five adults rolled their eyes and looked annoyed. The six kids glanced at each other, confused.

John was the first to say something. "So…were you about to mention my parents' band? Or something to do with that story?"

Odd rubbed the back of his neck, nodding slowly. "Um…sure…" He suddenly frowned, then looked up. There were gray clouds in the sky. "Hmm…looks like rain."

Sure enough, two minutes later, the rain poured down. Odd suddenly got a weird look on his face. He smiled as he saw the long, flat metal grate that was used to drain the water. It was basically a smooth metal plate with small slits in it. It ran all the way around the courtyard they had walked into. He grinned and ran towards it.

Kirsten raised an eyebrow. "Odd! What are you doing?"

He didn't listen as he jumped slightly and landed sideways on the grate. It was wet and slippery enough for him to slide on it. He slid for at least thirty feet, then turned around and did it again, ending up right in front of the group with a goofy smile on his face.

"I've always wanted to do that. It's like riding my overboard! Um…I mean…" He trailed off and swore under his breath. Everybody rolled their eyes and turned to continue the tour, with the kids now thoroughly confused.

Then they heard a scream.

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_Okay, I know I'm leaving you with a cliffie, but trust me, it'll be worth the wait when you see the next chapter. All I can say is…_

_Ahem…cue cheesy announcer voice…_

"_AND THE ACTION BEGINS!"_

_Anyway, I managed to evade my sanity for a little while longer. By the way, Odd sliding on the grate was actually inspired by me trying out the same thing. I was successful too! It was fun! WHEEEEEE!_

_Aw…crap…my sanity has found me again. Let me say one more thing before I become normal…REVIEW! OR NO NEW CHAPTER!_

_Okay, here's a preview of chapter 5:_

There, in the middle of the courtyard, were at least twenty monsters. They looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Unfortunately, these monsters were _very_ familiar to the six adults who had just spotted them.


	5. Once a Hero, Always a Hero

_Wow! I got like…counts on fingers…a whole lot of reviews! My review count after I posted chapter 4 almost doubled! Thank you so much! As for the poll a while ago, it will actually mean something, but not for another few chapters. I can promise you that there won't be any divorces. You'll just have to wait and see!_

_**Disclaimer:** Okay, the owners of CL probably don't write fanfics about it, since they can just put it in the script for the show itself. So put 2 and 2 together and don't sue me!_

_**Claimer: **Okay…I own Kirsten, John, Rena, Eric, Amy, Dan, Nina, and this story._

_Now, on to the chapter that you have all been waiting for…_

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_Chapter 5 – Once a Hero, Always a Hero_

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All of the adults took off running, with their kids hot on their heels. Ulrich, who was still the fastest, turned the corner and skidded suddenly to a stop. He froze and his mouth fell open. Yumi was right behind him, and she stopped as well.

"Oh my god…"

Everybody else rounded the corner and gasped as well. There were large craters all over the courtyard, and people were screaming and running for cover. There, in the middle of the courtyard, were at least twenty monsters. They looked like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Unfortunately, these monsters were _very_ familiar to the six adults who had just spotted them.

"Oh…great…tarantulas…" Ulrich put his face in his hands.

Jeremie just stared, muttering under his breath. "How? We…it's gone…how?"

Yumi was the first one to snap into action. "Okay, Ulrich and I will take care of them. You guys get to the factory. You know what to do."

Aelita nodded and dragged a stunned Jeremie after her. Kirsten and Odd soon followed. Ulrich and Yumi turned to the kids, who were staring at the monsters with mouths wide open.

"Kids, get into that classroom and hide." They slowly nodded and ran inside. They gathered at the window to see the spectacle.

Ulrich grinned at Yumi. "Just like old times, huh?"

"Yeah. Let's take care of these." She then grinned. "I bet you I can get more!"

Ulrich laughed. "You're on. Code Lyoko!"

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The six kids saw Ulrich and Yumi say something, then the strangest thing happened.

Of course, after seeing giant robotic four-legged tarantulas with lasers, not much will surprise you.

Anyway, the two ex-warriors of Lyoko began to glow. Ulrich was green, Yumi was red. Then they floated up in the air. There was a flash of light and they landed back on the ground.

But, they were different. Ulrich looked like a Japanese samurai, with two swords sheathed on either side of this waist. Yumi looked like a Japanese geisha. She had a giant bow on her back, and from it she pulled two metal fans.

The kids were astonished, especially John and Rena. Their parents were definitely far from ordinary.

Ulrich and Yumi nodded at each other and began to fight. Ulrich muttered something as he bent down and made a sign with his hand. Suddenly, he took off, leaving a bright yellow trail of light behind him. He sped under one of the tarantulas, thrusting his sword up through its head. It exploded, but he was already gone, working on another tarantula.

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Jeremie and the others jumped in their cars and drove to the factory. They almost went through the sewers out of habit. Their skateboards were still there, but were probably not in good shape, after years of sitting there and rotting.

They pulled up at the factory, running inside and swinging down to the factory floor. They ran into the elevator and pushed the button for the supercomputer level. They arrived and Jeremie ran into the room and stopped next to the silver panel in the floor.

He waited for the computer to come up through the hole in the floor.

He waited…and waited…

Finally he sank to his knees and pounded the panel in frustration.

"AARRGGHH! Stupid XANA!" He calmed down and collected himself, then turned to the others. "We have no choice. XANA changed something so I can't get to the switch. I'll try to shut it down from the control room, but you guys are probably going back to Lyoko."

Odd grinned. "Great! I missed it! The landscape…the architecture…the wildlife…the scenery…the action…the––"

All three of the others interrupted him, saying "Shut up Odd."

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Ulrich and Yumi were still fighting the tarantulas. They decided to finish it a little faster.

The kids watched as they stopped for a moment and muttered something, then started to glow again. This time, the glow seemed to move from them and center on two spots in front of them. There was another flash of light, and a one-wheeled green motorcycle appeared in front of Ulrich, while a silver hovercraft appeared in front of Yumi.

The kids, of course, were surprised once again. They watched in astonishment as the two adults mounted up and took off. The story was actually true!

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Jeremie had been unable to turn off the supercomputer, so he sent Odd, Kirsten, and Aelita down to the scanner level.

"Transfer…" He highlighted each character card individually. "…scanner…" He hit a key and three wireframe images of their characters appeared and slowly filled with color. They finished and he hit the enter key. "…virtualization!"

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Odd and the others appeared in the mountain region and dropped to the ground. Odd looked around slowly.

"Ah…I missed this place…" Aelita heard him and looked at him with a strange expression on her face. She shrugged as Jeremie spoke.

"Okay, here are the overboard and overglider. Aelita, I can't program the overwing or overbike, which means that Ulrich and Yumi are probably using them now, so you'll have to ride with Odd."

"Okay." She jumped up on the overboard behind Odd and they took off towards the tower.

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Ulrich sped under a tarantula, but missed its head with his sword. He pulled a trigger and the wheel retracted as he took off into the air. He circled around and barely scraped the symbol as he flew over it, pulling the trigger again and landing back on the ground. Luckily, a scrape was all that was needed, as the monster collapsed to the ground. Another tarantula fired a well-placed shot and destroyed the overbike. He jumped off as it dissolved into the air.

Yumi had just hit another tarantula when her overwing was devirtualized too. She swore as she tumbled to the ground. She lifted herself up to see Ulrich triplicate and run at one of the last five tarantulas. It fired at one of his supersprinting selves, and miraculously hit it. Unfortunately, it wasn't him, and it disappeared in a puff of smoke as the real Ulrich stabbed it from behind.

Yumi got up and looked at the four remaining tarantulas and had a great idea. She put her hands on her temples and closed her eyes. She glowed with a soft white aura. One of the tarantulas floated up a little, then shot into two others. All three of them collapsed as she smiled at Ulrich. There was only one left.

The final monster collapsed as a fan sliced through the symbol on its head. Yumi caught the fan and closed it. She and Ulrich transformed back to their normal clothes and smiled at each other. Yumi was the first to speak.

"Well, that was a lot of fun! I haven't had that much exercise in years!"

"Yeah, I needed the practice. Anyway, I got eleven of them. How many did you get?"

She smiled at him. "Fourteen! Hahaha! I won!"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "That's only because you used your telekinesis on those three over there…"

"Well…you used supersprint and triplicate. It's all fair…uh oh…come up with a story fast!"

Ulrich turned and saw the six children running towards them. He tensed for a moment and thought.

"Dad? What the heck happened! That was so cool!" John was the first to reach them.

He had a sudden inspiration. "Um…oh! You guys finally…uh…woke up! You…fell asleep in that classroom over there. We decided to…to let you sleep…"

John rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh…then tell me why this place looks exactly like my dream. There are broken robot monsters everywhere!"

Ulrich smacked his forehead and swore quietly as he remembered that monsters didn't explode and disappear in the real world like they did on Lyoko. "Well…uh…"

Yumi tried to help, but ended up joining in his stuttering. "Well…you see…"

Ulrich looked towards the factory and saw a bright flash of light. He smiled and nudged Yumi. "Never mind. You won't remember any of this anyway."

Yumi caught his drift and looked behind her at the approaching sphere of white light. She smiled as the light engulfed them and brought them back in time.

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_Well…that's a sorta-cliffie…_

_Anyway, good chapter, no? As most of you can tell, this will be much longer than Code : Changes. I mean, the whole plot of the story pretty much got started in this chapter, and we're already on chapter 5!_

_So, don't forget to review!_

_Okay, once again I had plenty reviews, but I'm not giving you a preview because I want to surprise you on this one._


	6. The Truth Uncovered

_Well, after a long wait (by my updating standards) the pivotal chapter 6 is here. So…here you go!_

_**Disclaimer:** If I owned CL, this wouldn't be a **fan**fic, would it?_

_**Claimer:** Everything in here that is not part of Code Lyoko is mine._

_Okay, one little announcement. I'd like you all to read "Code : Kouken" by **Akito Shaoku Mizukouken**. It's a good story that deserves more reviews than it's getting._

_Anyway, this chapter is **really** long, so enjoy it! Chapter 7 will be finished soon (later today or tomorrow). After chapter 7…well…you will probably have a bit of a wait for the next one. Keep reviewing and I'll write faster and better._

_So? Why are you still reading this? Get to the story already!_

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_Chapter 6 – The Truth Uncovered_

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"Hey! We look like a rainbow…woah…"

Eric looked at the others with a questioning glance. "What happened?"

John looked around. "I…I don't know…was it just a dream?"

Rena shrugged. "If it was, I think we all had the same dream!"

"Not only that, but it was about that story that we all like, 'Code Lyoko.'"

Eric shrugged. "What if it really happened and we went back in time just like in the story! Wouldn't that be cool?"

"Yeah, right. Shut up Eric."

"Hey! Now why does that sound familiar?" The six turned and saw their parents walking towards them, just like before. Odd looked as if he was trying to remember something again. Ulrich chuckled. "Maybe because you've heard part of it so many times. Does 'shut up Odd' ring a bell?"

Odd raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, it actually does! I wonder why?" He grinned at the others, who rolled their eyes, wondering why they were repeating exactly what they had said before the return trip.

The kids looked at them with confused expressions, then shrugged and began muttering excitedly to each other. The adults caught this and glanced at each other. Why were the kids acting differently from last time?

They continued on with their tour, with Jim popping out at the same moment, everything going the exact same way. Then they reached the corner. John reached it first and peeked around.

"John, what are you doing?"

John whirled around and focused his green eyes on Ulrich. "Huh? Oh…Dad? I wanted to ask you something. Do you know anything about…um…well…these…monsters…attacking the school? They were like the tarantulas from 'Code Lyoko.' And you and Mom turned into two of the people from the story. It was a dream…I think…"

Ulrich gasped. "Uh…I don't know…it must have been a dream…" He gathered his thoughts. "Yeah, who ever heard of monsters attacking the school? I suppose it was that story that caused it in the first place." He shot the other adults a look and walked over to Jeremie, whispering something in his ear.

"They remember. They remember everything."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Jeremie."

"…I'll have a look at the RTTP subroutines after the open house. I'll see what's going on."

"Okay."

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They finished the open house and their parents said goodbye. Jeremie shot them all a familiar look that they all knew the meaning of:

_Meet me at the factory._

They nodded and got into their cars. If the teens had been paying attention, they would have noticed that their parents went the wrong direction. They were occupied with other things.

John scratched his head. "There's no way that it actually happened…right?"

Dan shook his head. "I don't know. The fact that we all had the same dream is weird, and that we woke up at the same time…"

Eric smiled. "If it was a dream, why did we fall asleep while we were waiting for our parents? It seemed so real…"

"I don't know. Not only that, but everything happened again, up until the monster attack, with your dad called Mrs. Hertz an old bat, and when Jim came out…"

Nina looked inquisitively at her brother with her light gray, almost white, eyes. "Dan, what if that story is true?"

Dan pushed up his glasses. "That's impossible…"

She sighed. "So is this, bro. All of this Déjà Vu, with everything happening the same way twice, is impossible. Just assume that it _is _true…there will be some sort of secret passageway leading from here to that factory!"

John looked up. "Yeah, that factory…what if it's real?"

Rena rolled her eyes. "Of course it's real. We went past it a couple times in the car. The question is: does it have a supercomputer like in the story?"

"That's what I meant."

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Once everybody was at the factory, everybody piled into the elevator.

Ulrich sighed. "Okay. My son remembers the attack. But he thinks it's just a dream. The other kids look like they remembered too."

Kirsten gasped. "They did? Oh, this is going to be interesting…"

Jeremie sighed. "Yeah. Let me check the computer. I think it's because of something happening when we were scanned into the supercomputer. It changed something in our DNA to make us immune. Since our children are our biological children, they inherited the changed DNA from us, so they remember too."

Aelita nodded. "Makes sense."

The others nodded too, and Odd smiled. "Hey! I actually got what you said!"

Everybody laughed and Ulrich looked at him. "We all did, but I wasn't expecting you to understand as well…"

Odd frowned. "Well, I've changed for the better."

"True…and to this day I still don't understand how."

"Haha…funny… Anyway, I forgot to mention this before, but when we went back to Lyoko, I sorta expected that we would reappear as our 13-year-old selves. But we were still the same age! Even Aelita!"

Jeremie raised an eyebrow, shrugging. "Then how come Aelita didn't age while she was stuck in Lyoko? Oh, it must have been because she was unable to be materialized, so she didn't have a physical body that aged…or something…"

Odd rolled his eyes. "Okay…enough about that. So what do we do about the kids?"

Aelita shrugged. "Let's keep it quiet for now, but if XANA attacks again, and I don't doubt that he will, we'll have to tell them."

Jeremie nodded. "Okay."

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On Saturday morning, Eric woke up and sighed.

"I can't take it any more! I have to find out what the heck happened!"

John smiled as he pulled on a t-shirt, having woken up earlier. "Yeah, I know. We'll explore today."

"Awesome!"

"Go have a shower first. Then we'll go meet the others."

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They walked down and talked to the others. Rena was missing. They had just started wondering about it when she ran up to them. She had been running hard, and was panting heavily. She caught her breath and looked up. She had some interesting news for them.

"Hey guys, guess what! I found a passage to the sewers from the boiler room!"

The others looked at each other in shock. Eric smiled. "And the adventure begins…"

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The door creaked as it opened. The six kids looked down the stairs beyond the door, but couldn't see the bottom because the passage turned up ahead.

They were standing in the school's boiler room, and had just opened the door to the sewers.

They looked at each other, nodded, and went down the stairs. They reached the bottom and hopped over an ankle-high pipe to find that they were in a sewer. They walked until they reached a ladder that led up to a manhole, with four old skateboards and two rusted scooters leaning against the wall next to it. The wooden decks of the skateboards were soft and rotten.

John climbed up the ladder and looked around in shock. "Hey! Rena!" he called back down. "This is right next to our sparring spot!"

He climbed back down as Rena nodded. "Okay, we'll have to remember that." Amy called them over to the skateboards and scooters.

"Guys…look…" Her bright blue eyes were wide open in shock. Her voice was barely a whisper as she pointed at a spot on the old skateboard she was holding. Scratched into one of the axles was a name…

_Odd Della Robbia._

Eric gasped as the others grabbed the other skateboards and scooters. They had names as well…

_Yumi Ishiyama._

_Ulrich Stern._

_Kirsten Anderson._

_Jeremie Belpois._

_Aelita Stones._

Dan looked up at them. "Our parents…"

They continued slowly through the sewers, following footprints that had been left there recently, probably by their parents during the monster attack, if it really happened.

That was looking more and more likely as the children stopped after going down a short set of stairs and found themselves at a dead end with a giant grate. They looked through and saw a river flowing past, with the underside of a bridge blocking the sky and anything else beyond the grate.

There was a ladder next to the grate. They climbed up and turned around slowly, looking at the city around them. Eventually, they saw the factory.

It looked old and unused. With a quick glance at each other, they ran inside to find themselves on top of a tall balcony. There had once been stairs and a ramp going down to the factory floor, but both were long gone. There were more footprints, leading to the edge of the balcony.

They started inspecting the balcony, careful not to go close to the edge since the railing had rotted out long ago. Nobody could find a way down. Eric looked down at the footprints, following them right to the edge. He wasn't scared of heights at all, and looked down at the floor. He slowly tilted his head, looking up, until he spotted several old steel cables hanging from a crossbeam. He called to the others, and they walked back to where he was. He smiled and pointed at the cables.

"Voila!" Everybody looked in the direction that he had pointed and saw the cables. John took one look and stepped back, shooting Eric a look that obviously said _Are you crazy?_

John looked back at the cables and shuddered slightly. He had never liked heights. He watched as Eric leapt off the platform and seemed to hang in the air for a moment before grabbing a cable and swinging down.

Amy was next. She jumped and swung fluidly down to the ground. Rena and Nina were next. Dan hung back in the shadow of the wall for a moment, then ran, jumped, grabbed a cable, and slid down to the ground. John peered over the edge and leaned back, remembering some good advice long after it would have been useful:

_Don't look down._

He took a deep breath, jumped, and grabbed one of the cables. He slid down and smiled as his feet touched the floor again.

Nina smiled knowingly, the smile lighting up her entire face until one could describe it as glowing. Eric sighed. "Scared of heights?"

Rena glared at him with her fiery red eyes. "Don't make fun of my brother."

John rolled his eyes. "Shut up Rena, it doesn't matter."

Eric nodded. "Yeah, what he said. I was just asking an innocent question.

Dan decided to stay out of the conversation, until he noticed something about Rena.

"Um…are your eyes naturally red?"

Her anger dissipated and she cursed her hotheadedness, which was quick to bring her to anger about the littlest thing. She turned to look into his dark brown, almost black, eyes.

"Yes. I know it's weird, but it's true."

Eric smiled. "Well, that makes two of us." He pointed to his own eyes. "My eyes are yellow for some reason. But that doesn't matter. Come on! Let's see if this old thing still works!" He gestured to the elevator and the six teens piled in.

The doors opened on a huge empty room with some sort of circular metallic door in the center of the floor. However, no matter what they did, they couldn't open it. They gave up and went back into the elevator and went down to the next level. The elevator didn't open, so they went down one more floor.

The doors opened on a huge room with three giant metal cylinders. They all left the elevator and looked around, eyes wide with wonder. The room looked exactly like the scanner room from the book!

Amy looked at the others. "No…way…"

Eric smiled and jumped into one of the open scanners. "Hey look! Virtualization! I'm going to Lyoko! Hahaha!"

Everybody groaned unanimously. "Shut up Eric."

They all went back into the elevator, except for Eric, who elected to stay there for a little while longer and look around, and went to the locked level.

Dan found the keypad and stared at it for a moment, then looked at the back of his hand, poking it a couple times. Everybody leaned over his shoulder to figure out what he was doing.

He turned back and saw everybody staring at him. He smiled.

"I'm hacking into the lock."

John frowned. "Uh…how?"

Danpointed to the back of his hand. Everybody looked closely at it and shrugged. It seemed normal to them.

He sighed. "It's like a miniature computer." Nina nodded, looking at her own hand. "Tiny nano-projecters are embedded in my skin, and project a screen onto the back of my hand. I can manipulate it like a touch-screen. See?"

He poked a spot on the back of his hand, and a lighter square with a black outline faded into existence, with black numbers scrolling across it. "There are nanometer-sized circuits and components implanted into my hand." **_(A/N: Remember who his parents are, and that this is many years in the future. This is completely possible.)_**

The numbers stopped scrolling to show a six-digit number. He looked at it and entered the number on the keypad.

The door slid open and everybody walked out of the elevator. Their eyes roved around the room for a second, before settling on the large object in the center of the room.'

It was a hologram that showed a central sphere and four sets of interconnected platforms and pathways jutting off in different directions.

Nina gasped. "It's……real……"

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_Yet another cliffie…sorta… Sorry._

_Okay, by now it's obvious that they are going to Lyoko. I gave you hints to the Lyoko powers of all six kids during this chapter. There are some very obscure hints in another chapter too. Keep your guesses to yourselves or PM me about them. Don't mention them in reviews. I don't want to ruin the story for anybody who decides to read my reviews for some reason._

_You'll find out what their outfits and powers are in the next chapter. Jeremie's Lyoko form will be revealed as well! Until then, here's a preview:_

He poked the ground with a finger and vaguely felt pressure. He punched his arm. He felt a sort of vague pain that disappeared quickly. He saw a rock nearby and ran over to it. He got there much faster than he should have, but he didn't notice. He tried to jump to climb up, and found himself sailing up through the air to land on top.

_And with that, I leave you with one final word:_

_**REVIEW!**_


	7. In the Fray

_**Disclaimer: **I am a 15-year-old who lives in California. I don't have a chance in hell of owning Code Lyoko, so bug off and don't sue!_

_**Claimer:** I own all my OCs and their Lyoko forms, as well as Jeremie's Lyoko form. Yes, you find out about it in this chapter._

_Anyway, I got a bunch of reviews, so thanks. I'll just let you get straight to the chapter._

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_Chapter 7 – In the Fray_

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All five of them walked over to the holomap and stared at it in disbelief. The whole story, the one that Eric's mom had written and that they had all read, was true. The proof was sitting right in front of them.

Dan and Nina were the first to get over their shock, and they ran over to the terminal on the other side of the holomap. Dan reached it first and sat in the chair, looking at the monitors in front of him.

A few seconds later, and six virtual cards were shown on the screen. Each card had one of the adults' pictures on it, but they looked very different. He called everybody over, and they looked at the pictures.

The picture of Ulrich looked like a Samurai, and the one of Yumi looked like a Geisha. Odd looked like some sort of half-cat, half-human. Kirsten was wearing a red jumpsuit with black boots and gloves, and a belt with a blue gem in it. Aelita looked like an elf.

The last one was Jeremie's. He was wearing a white karate robe with a black belt. Strapped to his waist was a black nunchaku. **_(A/N: A nunchaku is also known as nunchucks.)_** His glasses were gone, and there was a black strip of cloth tied around his head, much like Ulrich's yellow one.

Dan just stared. "Woah! My dad looks cool! It never mentions what he looks like in the story…"

Nina grinned. "Can you imagine Dad as a ninja?" Dan looked at his sister. They were both silent for a few seconds, then burst out laughing.

Dan stopped laughing and put on the nearby headset, noticing a thick notebook lying next to it. He grabbed it and opened it, paging through it.

"Okay," he spoke into the headset, "Eric? Can you hear me? If you can, get into a scanner."

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Eric smiled. He would get to see Lyoko for himself! He hopped into a scanner and the doors closed. He closed his eyes tightly, trying not to notice how small it was. He didn't like small spaces. He didn't have claustrophobia or anything, he was just more comfortable in the open air.

He opened his eyes when the scanner started to hum. He heard Dan's voice come over the intercom.

"Okay…let's see…aha! Profile creation…Eric."

The scanner glowed brightly on the inside, and Eric was lifted off the floor. A metal hoop that ran around the edge of the scanner glowed bright yellow and moved from his head to his feet. He felt himself slowly descend back to the ground as the light around him faded to a normal level.

"Hmm…Transfer Eric!"

The scanner glowed and warmed up again. He smiled when he heard what Dan said. It sounded like he was really in the book, inside 'Code Lyoko'."

"Scanner Eric!"

He was lifted off the ground and scanned again. He stayed floating in the air for a few moments.

"Virtualization!"

There was a bright flash of white light and a rush of air, and his body went numb.

He opened his eyes and looked around. He was in the air, above a network of floating mountains and pathways. He looked down and saw that his body below his waist was a wireframe. He watched as four glowing triangles spaced around his body moved down, and the rest of his body filled in with color and texture. He dropped to the ground and landed lightly on his feet.

"Woah…"

He poked the ground with a finger and vaguely felt pressure. He punched his arm. He felt a sort of vague pain sensation that disappeared quickly. He saw a rock nearby and ran over to it. He got there much faster than he should have, but he didn't notice. He tried to jump to climb up, and found himself sailing up through the air to land on top. He looked around.

"Eric! Are you okay?"

He kept staring for a moment until he realized that Dan was talking to him. He shook his head.

"Yeah. I'm…better than okay…send the others!"

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Back in the lab, Dan nodded. "Okay, John, Rena, and Amy, you guys go first. Nina, you follow them."

They nodded and got into the elevator, heading back down. John looked at his sister.

"Hey, refresh my memory. I haven't read the story for a while, but I thought that only three people could go at once, since there are three scanners."

Rena shrugged, but Amy looked up, smiling as she looked into his deep green eyes. "Uh…I think it's because your real body disappears when you go to Lyoko, so the scanner can be reused."

Nina nodded as the doors opened. Sure enough, all three scanners were open. John, Rena, and Amy each picked a scanner and went inside. Nina sat on the floor to wait for her turn.

"Profile creation…John, Rena, and Amy. Transfer…scanner…virtualization!"

The three teens in the scanners closed their eyes as a rush of air and a flash of light brought them away from our world.

The scanner doors reopened, and Nina stepped into one. Dan could be heard in the intercom again.

"Profile creation…Nina. Transfer…scanner…virtualization!"

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Dan made sure everybody was okay, then looked through the cards again.

"Hmmm…okay, I'll be gone for a second, okay? I have to check something really fast."

He took off the headset and put it down on the keyboard, hearing quiet affirmatives through the earpiece. He spoke to himself while typing.

"Okay…Profile creation…Dan. Delay…two minutes."

He jumped out of the chair and took the elevator down to the scanner room, making sure to get in the right scanner. He stood still as the doors closed and yellow light blinded him. He floated up into the air and was scanned into the computer.

When his feet touched the ground, the doors reopened, and he ran back to the elevator.

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Eric and the others had just met, having been virtualized far from each other since Dan hadn't been able to specify accurate coordinates.

John and Rena stared at everybody else. Each of the five of them was wearing a ninja gi. The only thing that was different from the traditional gi was that they had no facemasks or hoods, and their shins were bare. They would have looked identical, but their clothes were different colors and had different designs. They also had different weapons.

John was wearing a bright green gi. He had a black symbol that looked Japanese on his chest area, and brown and green tattoos of what looked like rocks and vines on his exposed shins. There was a metal pole, about one foot long, attached to his waist. He pulled it out and looked at it, and it expanded into a full six-foot-long bo. He smiled and swung it around a few times. **_(A/N: Believe it or not, but I came up with this on my own. It was only when I edited this that I remembered that Robin from Teen Titans has an identical weapon.)_**

Rena was wearing a bright red gi with a white symbol on the front. In the same place that John had his rock and vine tattoos, she had red, orange, and yellow flame tattoos. There were two sai sheathed at her waist. She pulled them out and spun them around a few times in her hands, getting a feel for them. They were much sharper than normal sai, sharp enough to cut somebody easily.

Amy was wearing a navy-blue gi with a white symbol. She had blue tattoos of waves on her shins. She looked at her hands and saw that she had two…things…strapped to her hands. While looking at one, she wondered what it was. As if it was responding to her wishes, three claws slid out of it. The one on her other hand did too. She looked at them and willed them to retract again.

Eric was wearing a bright yellow gi with a black symbol. He had yellow and sky-blue tattoos of random shapes that looked like clouds. There was a small pouch on his waist. He reached into it and pulled out a curved shuriken. He threw it at a nearby rock, and it embedded itself half-way inside.

Nina was wearing a blinding white gi with a black symbol. She had white tattoos of suns. There was a black bow strapped to her back, along with a quiver of arrows. She pulled one out and fired it. It flew straight, rather than dipping slightly as a normal arrow would, and hit a rock. Instead of glancing off, it buried itself in the rock like Eric's shuriken. These weapons were _sharp_!

John and Rena looked down at themselves. John muttered "Do" just as Rena mumbled "Ka." The other teens stared at them, confused. John looked up and noticed them, grinning slightly.

"We were just reading the symbols on our clothes. Mine is 'do' for earth, and Rena's is 'ka' for fire." He looked at each one of them in turn. "Eric, yours is 'fu' for wind, and Amy, yours is "sui," or water. Nina, yours is 'kō' for light.

Rena nodded. "So, if we got any powers from this, they probably have something to do with that element."

Eric shrugged and stealthily pulled out two ninja stars. He suddenly spun and threw them at Nina. She saw them coming and jumped, the two shuriken flying harmlessly underneath her.

"Hey! Not fair!"

Eric simply smiled. "What? It's not like our enemies will give us time to get ready!"

John smiled and moved quickly to whack Eric upside the head with his bo. He stopped it an inch away and smiled as Eric slowly turned around.

"What was that for?"

"What? 'It's not like our enemies will give us time to get ready', right?"

Eric just rolled his eyes and pulled out two more shuriken. Everybody quickly readied their weapons and began to fight.

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Twenty minutes later, everybody was still at it, except for Eric, who had run out of shuriken and was looking for them as Dan tried to figure out if he could refill his ammo.

Eric threw up his arms, exasperated, and sat on a rock to watch the others fight. Nina was very nimble and had managed to dodge attacks while retrieving arrows, which were easier to see than shuriken embedded in the ground and rocks on the floating mountain plateau they were on.

He decided that he wouldn't find his shuriken for a while, and decided to try to use his powers. He figured that since his gi had the symbol for wind, he could control the air. He tried to make a small whirlwind by twirling his finger, but nothing happened.

After another five minutes, he threw his arms up again, yelling "STUPID AIR! JUST MOVE!" After saying the last word, his hands and eyes briefly glowed yellow as he shot up into the air. He realized what had happened after he had landed back on the ground.

He remembered a…feeling…that he'd felt when he yelled. Remembering it, he called it up again and began experimenting.

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John blocked Rena's swipe with his bo, but she used the tsuba sticking out from the hilt to catch the staff and twist it out of his grip. It flew off. He sprinted over to it and picked it up. He turned around to see Eric, with a huge grin on his face. He raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, found your shuriken?"

"No, something better."

With that, Eric took a deep breath as a yellow aura appeared around his clenched fists and his eyes started to glow.John felt a huge wind and was suddenly thrust backwards as he hit a rock. He groaned and got up.

"Oh, so you found your powers?"

"Yep! See if you can find yours!"

John shrugged and thought of how he would be able to control the earth. He smiled as an idea came to him. He sprung up high into the air (his fear of heights seemed to disappear in Lyoko) and came down quickly, slamming his bo into the ground. He felt something loosen inside as his hands and eyes glowed green. A shockwave traveled to Eric and threw him up in the air. He spun uncontrollably for a few moments, but concentrated and used winds to stop spinning and slowly float back down to the ground.

John, nodded, impressed.

Eric grinned and concentrated for a moment. Using his powers, he felt for the shape of the air around him, and the areas where there was no air. He immediately felt some strange protrusions and depressions in the rock. Walking over to one of them, he found one of his shuriken. He practiced using winds to make it fly around, then set off to retrieve the rest of them.

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Rena and Amy were having their own fight. Amy had just figured out how to use her powers, and was shooting jets of water at Rena, who was busy dodging and blocking with her sai.

Finally, she ran out of patience and yelled something incomprehensible as her hands and eyes started to glow. She punched the air with one hand and sent a fireball at Amy, who held out a blue-glowing hand and created a water shield.

The fireball hit it and went out, but the shield boiled away just as fast. The red and blue glows faded from their eyes and hands. They both smiled at each other and started practicing their powers.

Nina snuck up behind Rena and shot a beam of light at her. Rena ducked as Amy swiped at her with her hand-claws, and the beam of light missed. Rena spun around and shot off a fireball, which Nina promptly dodged, laughing.

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After another ten minutes, they had all discovered methods of using their powers for transport. Eric would use winds to propel him through the air. Rena shot fire out of her feet and used them like jets to maneuver. Nina would glow and zip across the sky like a beam of light.

John and Amy had the most trouble finding a way to keep up with them. Amy, finally remembering her father's overboard, created a "board" by producing water and freezing it into ice. She jumped on and maneuvered it, her hands and eyes glowing blue. John, seeing her, used his powers to lift up a board of rock from the ground.

After some practice, they were flying around like pros, and having aerial dogfights.

Then, Dan's voice interrupted them.

"Hey guys, you remember the story, right? You know how they deactivated towers to save the world?"

Eric nodded. "Yeah…so?"

"Well, just guess…"

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Jeremie was working a few bugs out of a new game that his company would be releasing soon. He was a hands-on sort of person, and loved doing some of the programming himself. Nobody in the entire company could figure out why one enemy refused to die, no matter how much it was damaged. He had realized that there was a problem with the physics engine, and was trying to fix it. The immortal enemy made him think of XANA.

_All this time, we thought it was gone. Now we're back to square one. We have to destroy XANA once and for all, but we can't turn off the supercomputer and take out the battery._

_We have to destroy him once and for all, by deleting him completely._

Suddenly, a familiar beeping noise jarred him from his thoughts. He looked at the window that popped up on his screen and groaned. He reached for his cell phone and sent a text message to the Sterns and the Della Robbias.

_**XANA**_

_**J.**_

He stood up and went to find Aelita.

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_And, yet again, I leave you with a cliffie._

_So, you found out about all of their powers and outfits and stuff. No, I didn't make their outfits match because I ran out of ideas, it just sounded good. So…do you like their powers and stuff like that? I hope so, because it's kinda too late to change it, since I have a large part of the story planned out._

_Okay, I have the entire main plot planned out. I just have to plan the many subplots and what happens when XANA isn't attacking, because if there is never a break in the attacks, this story would be much less interesting (not to mention much shorter). I also have to plan the details of the Lyoko battles. After that, I have to write the story itself. Not to mention that school starts next week…_

_Dear God, what have I gotten myself into?_

_**PLEASE REVIEW!**_

_Oh, and before I forget, here is your preview:_

The six adults were on their way to the factory, trying to make their way through rush-hour traffic. Jeremie was banging his head on the steering wheel.

"Why did we have to take the freeway! The attack could happen at any moment!"

_Yeah, I know, not much to go on there, but I'm still working on the next chapter._


	8. The First Test

_Okay, don't own CL, but I do own all of my OCs and this story, so don't take them or sue me or something!_

_Anyway, plenty of reviews and stuff, and I don't have much else to say…_

_So here's the chapter!_

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_Chapter 8 – The First Test_

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The five teens currently in Lyoko stopped in front of a large cylinder that was glowing red.

"Uh…I'd guess that this is the activated tower…" Eric sounded awed.

Nina nodded. "So, I have to go through the wall and deactivate it?"

They heard Dan's voice again, saying "Yes. Since it was our mom who originally did it, it should recognize you and me."

She nodded and ran for the tower. She was almost there when three blocks and two crabs came out from behind the tower.

"Oh…great…"

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The six adults were on their way to the factory, trying to make their way through rush-hour traffic. Jeremie was banging his head on the steering wheel.

"Why did we have to take the freeway! The attack could happen at any moment!"

As Jeremie said that, he heard a crash behind him. He looked in his rearview mirror to see Ulrich and Yumi, in Lyoko form, battling against a man who was obviously possessed. They were on the side of the road right behind him, their car parked a few yards away.

He was about to pull over to help them somehow, when Ulrich supersprinted up to his window, summoned the overbike, and gestured to it. Nodding, Jeremie pulled over and he and Aelita got out of the car as Ulrich supersprinted back to the battle. They got on, Aelita in front, since she was better than Jeremie at driving it.

She hit a trigger and the wheel retracted as the overbike lifted up into the air and shot off through the sky. They were finally moving!

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Odd noticed the Overbike fly past, with Jeremie and Aelita on it, and nodded to himself, pulling over.

"Odd? What are you doing?"

Odd turned to Kirsten and smiled. "We're taking a faster route." He got out of the car, yelling "Code Lyoko!"

Kirsten followed suit, and they were soon flying off to the factory.

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"Okay guys, one enemy each."

Eric nodded. "Right, Dan. I'll take one of the crabs."

Nina looked up. "I'll take the other."

John, Rena, and Amy nodded, and they sprinted towards their chosen targets.

John stopped in front of a block and dodged a laser that it fired. He pulled out his bo and blocked a second shot, then slammed the bo staff into it, missing the symbol.

He frowned and blocked another laser, then slammed his bo into the ground and caused a spike to shoot up, impaling the block and destroying it.

Rena heard the explosion, but it didn't register in her mind. She was busy blocking rapid-fire lasers with her sais. She blocked a few more, then reached and stabbed the block, also missing the symbol. She used her powers to light the blades of her sais on fire, then stabbed it again, blowing it up.

Eric was having fun with the crab, using powerful winds to dodge attacks almost before they came. He finally ran under the crab and backflipped up high over it, boosting himself up with his powers. As he flipped, he spun so he was diving headfirst into the ground, facing the crab, and hurled a shuriken. He continued the flip and landed lightly on his feet. His aim was true, and the crab was destroyed.

Nina was having trouble. She had used a bow before, and she was used to the arc of an arrow's flight path. Her Lyoko arrows never changed direction, flying on the path that was chosen for them until they hit something. She kept aiming too high. Another laser was fired at her, which she blocked with a shield of light. She jumped up onto a rock and fired straight at the crab, finally getting rid of it.

Amy couldn't get close enough to her block to swipe at it with the hand-claws. She kept having to block and retreat. She finally came up with an idea and quickly hopped on top of the block. It rotated around, trying to find her, as she reached down and sliced it open.

Once the battle was finished, they were all breathing heavily, but they felt reenergized after only a few moments. Nina walked up to the tower and put her hand on it. It sunk through the side, and she gathered her courage and walked through. She found herself inside a circular area that seemed larger than the tower was, with a multitude of screens forming its intangible walls, and a platform with the XANA symbol on it. She walked to the center of the symbol, watching as the symbol slowly lit up. When she reached the dot in the center, she felt her feet lift off the ground as she floated up to a second platform.

When she landed, the symbol lit up. She walked to the center again, and a screen appeared. Having read 'Code Lyoko' so much, she knew exactly what to do. She placed her hand on the screen, jerking it away quickly. She noticed that her handprint remained on the screen, slowly fading.

It was replaced by a single word:

NINA

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The possessed person had taken off a while ago, and Ulrich and Yumi were following him on the overwing. They ended up at the factory just as the others were about to go inside.

Ulrich hopped off the overwing and grabbed his overbike, which was still there, yelling "Go inside! We'll cover you!"

The others nodded.

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Nina's name faded, to be replaced by another word:

CODE

She knew what to enter, but couldn't find a keyboard anywhere. She was about to give up when the screen changed. The password appeared.

LYOKO

The many screens that formed the walls of the tower slid down into the darkness below.

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Jeremie and the others had just walked through the doors when they heard a thump behind him. Ulrich and Yumi caught up with them.

Yumi shrugged. "He just fainted, and the symbol went away. XANA ended his attack…"

Jeremie appeared to think for a moment, then sighed. "We'll still need a return to the past though. He destroyed a lot of stuff, and was originally a prisoner, before XANA possessed him and destroyed the entire prison. I heard about it on the radio on the way here."

The others nodded and stepped into the elevator.

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Dan had found something earlier in the notebook, which he now realized was Jeremie's. He typed in several commands, then muttered "Return to the past…now…"

The holomap disappeared, replaced by a cylinder of bright white light, which moved out and consumed the world.

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The door of the elevator started to open, and the adults saw a bright light.

"What the––"

The rest of Ulrich's sentence was cut off as he was dragged into the past.

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_Yes, I know. It's shorter than most of my recent chapters, but still back to my normal length, between 1,000 and 1,500 words, which is a pretty good length._

_Anyway, enough about that. So, what do you think of this chapter? Make sure to **REVIEW!**_

_Oh, I forgot to say this when I put up chapter 1 a long time ago, but Merry/Happy belated (insert holiday here so I can be politically correct)!_

_Anyway, I got plenty of reviews, but I wanted to get this up ASAP and I haven't started typing the next chapter, but most of my previews don't give anything away…_

_Once again…**REVIEW!**_


	9. Racing Rematch

_Here's a long one for you. This chapter is more than 2100 words long!_

_You've been waiting for a long time…about 2 days actually…for this chapter, and here it is! I just have a few things to say:_

_This story is so much more popular than my old one, and it's already got nearly twice as many reviews! This story has fewer chapters (as of the next chapter, they'll have the same, since my last Author's Note doesn't count) than the other one, but is already longer, since my chapters are longer._

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Code Lyoko. Period._

_**Claimer:** I own Kirsten, John, Rena, Eric, Amy, Dan, Nina, and Lisa (you'll see)._

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_Chapter 9 – Racing Rematch_

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Less than a minute after Nina entered the tower, the four other kids saw a blue light shoot out from it, then everything went white. A few seconds later, they felt themselves fall back into their bodies and into a deep sleep.

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If someone were standing in the Stern's living room at 11:32 AM, that person would have seen an interesting sight. Ulrich and Yumi were sitting on the sofa, watching TV. Suddenly, both of them jerk at the same time and spin to face each other, unanimously yelling something.

"What happened?"

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Jeremie got out of bed and immediately grabbed his phone, calling Ulrich.

"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Jeremie––"

"What happened?"

"I don't know. Let's meet at the factory ASAP. I'll call Odd and Kirsten."

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Eric sat up, yawning, and looked at his clock. It was morning. He was suddenly wide awake, and he glanced at John who was already dressed and showered.

John smiled. "Finally woke up, huh?"

Eric raised an eyebrow, confused. It must have just been a dream. "Uh…yeah…"

John looked at him. "Well…I had a weird dream last night––"

Eric sighed. "Not a dream."

John grinned. "Good. I was just making sure that it actually happened. That was great, huh?"

Now Eric was the one to smile. "Yeah…yeah it was!"

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Jeremie sat in the computer chair and ran a few programs. He turned to the others.

"Well, the return to the past was not caused by XANA, and we would have needed one anyway…"

"So?"

"Well, Odd, somebody went into Lyoko and deactivated the tower, then returned to the past."

Odd raised his eyebrows as Aelita thought for a moment. "Check the profiles. See if there are any new ones."

He nodded and hit a few keys. He looked at the cards on the screen.

There were twelve of them.

"Guys…our kids found Lyoko…"

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They met outside after class. They were talking about what had happened when John got a call on his cell phone. He pulled it out and answered.

"Yes? Oh, hi Dad…why? …um…maybe…okay…see you soon!"

He hung up and turned to the others. "My dad wants all of us to go to the factory. He said he wants to talk to us. He also mentioned that we have permission to leave, so we don't have to take the sewer."

The other kids sighed, knowing that they would be in trouble when they got there, and headed for the gate. They were within sight of it when a girl with long black hair jumped out in front of them.

John groaned. "Lisa…just leave me alone…" She simply smiled.

"Oh, I was just wondering where you're going, since you're leaving the school."

Rena frowned. "We can leave if we want, we don't have to tell you where we're going."

The girl spun. "Nobody asked your opinion! And watch who you're talking to!"

"Oh? And who do I have the _pleasure_ of talking to today?" Her voice dripped with sarcasm. She already didn't like this girl.

"I'm Lisa Delmas! The principal's daughter!" she stated proudly.

Rena clenched her fists. She hated stuck-up preps, and Lisa fell nicely into that category. "Why don't you just––"

She didn't finish, as her hands and eyes glowed briefly red and a muffled boom was heard nearby. They all looked over and saw that a tree was on fire! Amy instinctively shot a jet of water at it to put it out. They turned back to Lisa to see her running away as fast as her legs could take her. They all started laughing, then it hit them…

They could use their powers in the real world.

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Jeremie and the others were standing on the factory floor. Jeremie was pacing, muttering to himself.

"Why me? Why did our kids have to find Lyoko? Why, why, why?"

Aelita walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, everything will work out fine."

Jeremie was about to reply when they heard noises coming from the bridge, and all six of the kids arrived and slid down the cables.

Jeremie walked up to his son. "Do you know about Lyoko?"

Dan looked down. "Yes…"

"Did you or anybody else go to Lyoko?"

"Yes…"

"Did you trigger the time reversion?"

"Yes…"

"Have any of you used your powers in the real world?"

"Um…I think so…"

"What about transforming?"

"What?"

Jeremie sighed. "Never mind."

Odd smiled. "Well, like father, like son. And the same goes for mothers and daughters. They're following in our footsteps. So, Eric, what do you look like in Lyoko?"

Eric smiled a little. "Why don't you find out for yourself?"

Odd smiled and slapped Jeremie on the back. "Lighten up, will you? They were going to find out anyway. It's just better that they found out now."

"What if XANA goes after them?"

"Even if they had never found out about Lyoko, XANA would still be after them, just because they're _our_ children. Besides, they could help!"

Ulrich smiled. "Odd, speaking of Lyoko, I challenge you to a race."

He just smiled. "Sure, let's go!" All twelve of them piled into the elevator and went down.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Jeremie and Dan went into the lab while the others took the elevator down one more level to the scanners.

Jeremie muttered to himself as he warmed up the scanners. "I wonder if we can put ten people in there at a time…"

He started the virtualization process.

"Okay, you're going to the desert sector."

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Once all ten of them were in Lyoko, they inspected their clothing. Everybody already knew what Yumi and Ulrich looked like, from the very first attack they saw. Odd was all in purple, and looked like a cross between a human and a cat. He had paws for hands and a tail. Kirsten was wearing a red skintight suit with black gloves and boots and a silver belt with a blue gem in the center. Aelita looked like an elf with pink and pale green clothes.

The adults looked at the kids and smiled at their costumes. Yumi was the first to read the kanji symbols on their chests.

"So, I'm assuming your powers involve air, earth, fire, water, and light?"

The kids each nodded in turn. Ulrich turned to Odd and smiled. "Well?"

"Yeah, we'll race. Jeremie! Send us the vehicles!"

"Coming right up! I'll send all four of them."

They waited a moment, then the four vehicles appeared in front them. Ulrich jumped on the overbike, and Odd backflipped onto the overboard.

Yumi and Aelita got on the overwing and flew over to the ending point. Kirsten grabbed the bar of the overglider, but did not take off. She looked over at Odd and Ulrich.

"Okay, you've raced this course many times before, so you know what to do. Remember, no flying, and you can't go around the canyon, not that it'll help at all… Anyway, when I fire the jets, you can go, okay?"

They both nodded. She smiled. "Okay…3…2…1…" She squeezed the bar and the two jets on the side of the overglider spat fire as she took off straight up into the air, and Ulrich and Odd took off as well.

Ulrich was leading for most of the race, staying on the inside of the turns. Odd finally caught up right before they entered the canyon. They were neck-and-neck for most of it, but Ulrich began pulling ahead again.

He looked back to see Odd glare at him and urge the overboard to go faster, but Ulrich still pulled ahead by taking the turns tighter.

Ulrich felt a jolt, and suddenly found himself on the ground. His overbike had devirtualized. He looked back to see Odd approaching at top speed, smiling innocently. Ulrich pulled out one of his two swords and stabbed the overboard as it went by. It devirtualized and Odd flew head-first into the wall.

"Supersprint!"

Odd picked himself up and looked at the yellow blur that was coming toward him.

_Steady now…okay…right…NOW!_

He jumped and reached out with his arm. He snagged Ulrich's shoulder and pulled himself up onto his back, riding piggyback-style.

"Hey! Get off!"

He began to run in zigzags and suddenly reverse direction, but Odd remained latched on his shoulders. He even ran up the walls and jumped back and forth between them, but was unable to shake off the rider.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Yumi stood at the finish line, staring at the exit to the canyon. She sighed. Ulrich and Odd were still nowhere to be seen.

She had seen the teens using their powers to fly high above the cliffs to watch the race. They had been moving quickly, following the path of the canyon, until just a few moments ago. Now they were moving slowly, laughing really hard.

She was about to hop on the overwing and see what happened, when a yellow streak of light shot out of the canyon and started speeding around in circles and zigzags. Once, it stopped and suddenly ran backward, and she got a clear glimpse of Ulrich with Odd riding on his shoulders.

She laughed along with Aelita as Ulrich tried futilely to shake him off.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Ulrich felt a vague sensation of pain in his arm. He turned back to look at Odd.

"Faster, slave!"

Ulrich rolled his eyes and felt another laser arrow hit his arm. He was pissed now…

"Triplicate!"

He split into three clones, and Odd was still on the real Ulrich's shoulders. The clones grinned evilly and pulled out their swords, all four of them.

"Uh-oh…"

Both clones jumped at him and sliced at his arms, which made him let go and fall to the ground.

"Fusion! Supersprint!"

Ulrich fused back into one person and shot up the rock ramp to land on the plateau. He smiled as Odd followed a minute later.

Odd landed on all fours, then straightened up, his hands on his hips.

"You cheated! Your clones stabbed me!"

"Only 'cause you shot me!"

"Only 'cause you weren't going fast enough!"

"Only 'cause you wouldn't get off my shoulders!"

"Only 'cause you stabbed my overboard!"

"Only 'cause you shot my overbike!"

"Only 'cause you…you…you were winning!"

Yumi, laughing, kissed her husband quickly on the cheek. "Sorry Odd, but Ulrich wins."

"I want a rematch!"

"That _was _a rematch! Do you remember the last race we had?"

He grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, years ago…the one where I…uh…hehe…"

"Yes, Odd, the one where you smashed into the rock."

"Oh…"

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

_I'm thinking of writing my own original story! I'll post it on fictionpress when I actually get going on it, which could be sometime this month or sometime next year! I might even scrap the idea, but I just wanted you guys to know. When and if I post it, I'll let you know. It'll be set in modern times, but have all sorts of magic and fantasy elements. I'll give you more details when I can._

_Now, I'd just like to ask something:_

_If the opposite of pro is con, then what is the opposite of progress?_

_Everybody who gets it right would get a cookie, but I haven't figured out how to e-mail one using my scanner yet. If I ever figure it out, I'll let you know._

_And I'm gonna start putting random quotes here, so here's the first:_

"_Glitter and shimmer are two completely different things!" "No! There's no difference!" "Yes there is!" "No there isn't!" "Wow…I believe that we have reached a whole new level of stupidity…" –Lessee…that was Kirstin, John, Kirstin, John, and me. Sometimes we argue about the most pointless things. I don't even remember how this started!_

_Anyway, please review! I only need a few more and I'll have 100! The 100th reviewer gets the next chapter dedicated to them, as well as a cookie! Except…without the cookie…um…yeah…_

_So, review!_


	10. Sparring

_I finally got around to updating! Yay! As for the riddle, only a few people got it! The rest of you took the question too literally! If the opposite of pro is con, then the opposite of progress is…_

_Congress!_

_Haha…funny…oh, whatever. Anyway, here's chapter 10. Now here's the disclaimer._

**_CODE LYOKO IS NOT MINE! I'm a fanfiction author. A FANfiction author, as in I'm a FAN of Code Lyoko, not the OWNER! Okay? Good._**

_YAY! I have more than 100 reviews! This chapter is dedicated to Bighoggi14, my 100th reviewer!_

_Anyway, here's the next chapter._

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

_Chapter 10 – Sparring_

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Ulrich smiled at Odd. "So, you want to fight a bit?"

Odd visibly cringed. "Um…no. Not when you use triplicate and supersprint. That's a deadly combination!"

Ulrich sighed. "Come on. First contact wins, okay? Just one hit."

Odd groaned. "Fine…just no devirtualizing me! I wanna stay here for a while! And please don't use your supersprint too much. I'd rather have a somewhat fair fight."

Yumi grinned. "Come on Odd, you can do it!"

Kirsten nodded. "Yeah, you can do it!"

Odd smiled. "Well, only for you, Kirsten."

Ulrich and Odd faced each other, with Yumi standing in the middle. She held a hand up in the air. "Ready?" They both nodded, and she dropped her hand and jumped out of the way.

Odd started by firing several laser arrows. Ulrich blocked them all and ran towards him, but was forced to stop and deflect more arrows. He took off in a flash of yellow light.

Odd sighed and waited. Suddenly, his vision went blurry and he saw Ulrich try to stab him from behind. He smiled as his vision went back to normal and he turned around, throwing his arms out in front of him and yelling "Shield!"

Ulrich found his sword blocked and grinned. He sprinted away behind a rock. Odd started to run over, and Ulrich sprinted out and headed for him again.

Ten minutes later, they still hadn't managed to hit each other. Odd finally got a lucky shot in, only to see Ulrich disappear. He felt a jolt, and turned around to see Ulrich standing behind him. He looked down to see that his back was sparking.

"Not fair! You triplicated!"

"I never agreed not to."

"Oh yeah? Well you can just…oh, whatever…"

Jeremie's voice came out of nowhere again. "Guys, I think I can help you out a bit with your training. How would you like to train with someone of equal skill?"

Odd raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I've been studying XANA's polymorphic clone from the whole kissing incident, and I might be able to recreate some clones of you guys to fight against. Just wait a moment…"

They stood there for a moment until several figures appeared. There were copies of Ulrich, Odd, Yumi, and Kirsten. They all had the same clothes, but with a dark-blue coloring.

Ulrich smiled. "This should be fun."

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All of the adults began to duel with their clones. Eric and John were fighting, as well as the three girls. Ulrich and his clone were just two blurs, one yellow and the other blue, speeding around on the plateau. Yumi and her clone had realized that their fans were useless, since the other would just catch them, and were now staring at each other, glowing white, trying to knock each other down with telekinesis.

Odd and his clone were flipping all over the plateau, dodging arrows and climbing rocks. Kirsten and her clone were trading laser blasts. John and Eric kept shooting boulders and blasts of air at each other, creating earthquakes and small whirlwinds, and trying to get at each other with their weapons. Rena and Amy had shot blasts of fire and water at the same time, and were in a deadlock, trying to force the other's blast back with their own. Nina had started trying to get at the girls, but they found the strength to block her arrows with their sais and handclaws.

Finally, there was a huge clash of steel, and Ulrich's clone flew off the edge towards the digital void, but grabbed the edge at the last second. Ulrich sprinted up and stabbed the clone, devirtualizing it.

The kids, unable to hit each other, had stopped to watch as Odd silently snuck up behind his clone and got him with a few well-placed arrows. Kirsten finally managed to hit her clone quick enough so it didn't have time to heal the damage before it devirtualized. Yumi forced her clone back with a strong burst of telekinesis, and hurled both of her fans. The clone, still recovering, was hit and devirtualized.

They all sat down to rest as Kirsten healed the ones who had been hit once or twice.

Ulrich was the first to recover his breath. "Wow…good job Jeremie…this makes training really…really…difficult…phew!"

Odd panted. "Yeah…they're as good as us…almost…"

Unseen by the others, Jeremie smiled. "Yeah, they are. They won't stand up against XANA's monsters though. For some reason, they don't attack. So they won't be taking your job."

Odd smiled. "Good."

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Eric sat at his desk in science class the next day, listening to Mrs. Hertz drone on about photosynthesis or something like that. He finally gave up on making sense of what she was saying, and started to doodle on a sheet of paper. He looked up at John, who was staring in the general direction of the teacher with glazed-looking eyes.

He looked down at his pencil, then at John's pencil, and got an idea. He squinted and stuffed his hands in his pockets to hide the yellow glow, and used small winds to lift up John's pencil and begin to write.

A few moments later, he let the pencil drop and looked at John. He still hadn't noticed. He sighed and picked up the pencil once again, bopping him on the nose.

John blinked and looked down at the pencil, then at the message on his desk. He smiled.

_**Having air powers is useful! I bet you can't send a message back!**_

He thought for a moment and smiled. He looked back at Eric and hid his hands. Eric's pencil lifted up and began to write.

Eric looked down, surprised, at the message.

_**Pencils have graphite! Ha!**_

He snickered silently. Mrs. Hertz, though nearly deaf, somehow heard this. She turned around and stared at Eric.

"Eric, you seem to find this lesson funny. Perhaps you can tell me how chloroplasts convert sunlight into energy?"

"Uh–"

He was interrupted by a loud beep as Mr. Dunbar's voice came over the P.A. system.

"Attention students and teachers: pardon this interruption, but I have an important announcement to make."

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_Yes, I know, it's a cliffie. At least it's not like the one in Code : Changes where Odd's life was in jeopardy. Anyway, please review this, okay?_

_Now, for the random quote:_

"_You're gonna live in a million-dollar house someday!" "Um…yeah…I live in California, so I already do…" –A crazy drunk guy on the BART (I think it stands for Bay Area Rapid Transit) train, and Kirstin._

_Anyway, don't forget to review! Only your reviews keep my sanity at bay and allow me to write such a good story._


	11. PRP

_Wow, I'm sorry for taking so long to update this. I have finals this week, so you're lucky to get anything at all! There's no action in this chapter, but there will be in the next one. Not only that, but there will be a huge change in the chapter, maybe two._

_Anyway, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers for being there, especially those of you who have been reviewing from the start of this story. I'd like to give an even bigger thanks to **Starfiregirl5671**, who has been reading and reviewing since the first chapter of my first story, the prequel to this one._

_So, this chapter is dedicated to **Starfiregirl5671**._

_**One last thing. Since I'm writing FANfiction, I obviously don't own Code Lyoko. I just own this story and my OCs: Kirsten, John, Rena, Eric, Amy, Dan, Nina, and Lisa.**_

_Okay, here's chapter 11!_

**_UPDATE: I decided tochange the lyrics of "A World Without Danger" from French to English. The words are different, because it isn't a straight translation. Note that some of the lyrics don't rhyme. It's supposed to be that way, for some reason._**

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

_Chapter 11 – PRP_

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"_Attention students and teachers: pardon this interruption, but I have an important announcement to make."_

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Eric and John looked at each other, confused. Mr. Dunbar continued. "The Pop-Rock Progressive, a group of five former students, will be giving a surprise performance tonight. They disbanded soon after forming, but have come back together just to perform for you. I'm sure that you know most, if not all, of them _quite_ well. Thank you, that is all."

Mrs. Hertz sighed. "Before that little interruption, I asked Eric here, who seemed to find my lesson funny, how chloroplasts convert sunlight into energy."

"Uh…" He looked imploringly at John, who sighed and pulled out his science book. He read for a second while Eric stalled, then smiled and gestured to Eric's desk as the pencil moved again. Eric squinted at the new message, and smiled.

"Uh, they use special mini solar panels attached to tiny batteries in the roots…wait…"

_That can't be right…damn it John!_

As everybody began to laugh, he glared at John, who innocently shrugged. John jumped as his pencil began to move again.

_YOU LIAR!_

He just shrugged in a gesture that meant "oops!" Eric finally gave in and laughed too. The laughter didn't die down until the bell rang a minute later.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Hey! Guys! Over here!"

Everybody walked over to where Dan was standing and waving at them. He smiled at he held out his hand. In it were ten tiny clear spheres, five contact cases, and five almost-invisible band-aid-like things.

Eric raised an eyebrow. "Um…what are those? Were you rooting through the trash dumpster?"

Dan rolled his eyes. "No, they're something new my dad developed. The spheres are earpieces, and the contacts are miniature transparent nano-screens. The 'band-aid' goes on the bottom of your throat, for vocal commands. It's like a mini computer system, extremely useful. It can do anything! Just try it!"

Everybody recoiled slightly. They had all experimented with some of Mr. Belpois' "inventions" with mixed results. Just three days before school started, he had showed them a new supercomputer, which they now knew was based on the one in the factory. Eric started playing a game on it, and the thing overheated and started belching smoke everywhere. That wasn't even the worst of it! Five minutes later, it blew up in a giant orange fireball which damaged nothing except equipment. Jeremie had learned from his earlier mistakes and made his lab completely fireproof.

Eric shrugged. "It can't be worse than the supercomputer…" he said, echoing everybody's thoughts. He took two earpieces, a contact case, and a band-aid, and put them all in the proper spots.

He muttered quietly to himself, and jumped as a screen that only he could see appeared. He opened up an MP3 player and started one of the songs already on it. The music blasted his ears, and he muttered something else and his vision changed! It looked to him like he was actually at a concert! He muttered "stop," and the music ended. The menu disappeared, leaving his vision unclouded.

"So? How is it?"

"I…wow…"

Everybody put theirs in and experimented as well. In addition to playing music, you could browse the web and use it as a cell phone or instant messenger. John discovered another function later.

"Um…guys? It seems like it's got some sort of targeting system too! Every one of you has green brackets around them…"

Dan nodded. "Yes, green means friend, red means foe. It'll be useful during any attacks in the real world."

Eric grinned. "This is awesome! How'd your dad make these?"

"I don't know. I think he got some of the technology from the supercomputer. I have a couple other toys to show you guys later."

John turned around to see Lisa walking up towards him, and noticed with a little amusement that the targeting system marked her as an enemy with red brackets appearing around her. He chucked as she approached. These things were perfect!

"What's so funny, huh?" She walked up and looked dreamily at John. Eric glanced at his sister to see her clenching her fists. He laughed and looked at John, muttering "Better get rid of her before Amy explodes."

John heard him and smiled again. He looked at Amy and his heart fluttered. He felt his cheeks warm and looked down until the blush went away. He looked back up at Lisa and frowned."

"So? What's so funny?"

Eric tried to think of a witty comeback, but Nina beat him to it. She stepped up and smiled. "Well, a girl escaped from the psychiatric hospital today. They said that she is extremely retarded and may attack random people. I think they mentioned her name…it was…oh yeah! Some girl called Lisa Dunbar. Wait…that's you! Um…uh…" She forced herself to stop smiling and look scared as she backed away. She had trouble keeping herself from bursting out laughing at Lisa's expression.

If looks could kill, Nina's body would have been reduced to ash in an instant. Lisa stuck her nose up in the air and walked away as they all finally let out their laughter.

Eric gave her a high-five. "Awesome! That was better than anything I would have come up with!"

She smiled and blushed as she noticed that their hands were still touching. They both quickly pulled away. John smiled and sent a knowing glance in his sister's direction. She looked back and whispered quietly.

"Well, those two are definitely in love…"

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Come on Kirsten! We need you! Nicholas is gone, Jeremie is doing something else, and Aelita has no idea how to play them! Everybody else already has something to do! Even if you do, we still have to make do without the trombone support from Jim! Please?"

"Somebody in your band played trombone? Wait, _Jim_ played trombone?"

"Uh…yeah…we didn't have much of a choice, really."

"Anyway, are you absolutely sure about this?"

Odd smiled, looking at his wife. "Of course! Show us what you've got!"

She looked out at Ulrich, Yumi, Jeremie, and Aelita, who were all gathered around the drumset in Odd's house. She picked up the drumsticks and started to play.

She took their breath away. They stared at her, mouths wide open, as she kept playing. With a final fading drumroll she ended and put the sticks down. She looked up at the others standing around her.

"…so…did I do well?" The only reply she received was stunned silence.

Misinterpreting the silence, her head drooped. "Oh…that bad?"

Odd slowly shook his head, eyes and mouth wide open, then slapped himself in the face to break the paralysis. Kirsten burst out laughing. He shrugged. "Sorry. I had to break the spell. How are you this good? Have you ever played drums before?"

"Yeah, back when I was eleven. I didn't like it and I stopped, but I guess I _could_ get to like them…"

"Okay, because you are WAY too good to just stop. I mean, that was awesome!" He stopped as he looked at Aelita. "Aelita, since we already know you have a great voice from Lyoko, why don't you sing along with Yumi?"

She nodded, and they began to practice.

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"Thank you for coming tonight. For those of you who _still_ don't know who I am, I'm your principal, Mr. Dunbar. Now, I'd like to welcome…the Pop-Rock Progressive!"

A spotlight trained on the stage and someone ran into it, grinning like a madman. Someone with…

…blond and purple hair?

"Dad?" Eric whispered.

Mr. Dunbar cleared his throat, then spoke again. "Odd Della Robbia! He's the guitarist, and is now a famous movie director!" The rest of them ran out onstage as he named them off. "Kirsten Della Robbia! She's the drummer, and is now an actress! Ulrich Stern!" A loud cheer cut him off. "He's on the keyboard, and is now one of the Lyokophiles! Yumi Stern!" There was another loud cheer. "She's a singer, and is the other Lyokophile! Aelita Belpois! She's the other singer, and is now a model and co-owner of SCIPIO Games! Jeremie Belpois, the other co-owner of SCIPIO Games, is doing the lights."

Ulrich sat down in front of the keyboard as Odd picked up his guitar. Kirsten sat at the drums and Aelita and Yumi stepped up to the microphones. Yumi took a deep breath.

"How are you all tonight!" There was a deafening cheer. "Awesome! Anyway, we're going to start with our first-ever song, Mystery Girl!"

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Countless songs later, Aelita stepped up to the microphone. "Okay! We have just one song left! It's a song that has a special meaning to us, so we saved it for last. Odd here wrote it several months ago."

"And this song is dedicated to the Princess of Lyoko, and the downfall of XANA!" Aelita smiled slightly and blushed at the mention of her nickname.

There were many raised eyebrows and several people in the crowd said things like "huh?" and "what?" The new warriors of Lyoko just looked at each other, grinning.

"This song is called…A World Without Danger!"

**There is a world  
****That is virtual and different  
****It can be so cold  
****Makes us stand up for what's right  
****Our hope through our life  
****If you reset it to the start**

**Here we are, going far  
****To save all that we love  
****If we give all we've got  
****We will make it though  
****Here we are, like a star  
****Shining bright on your world  
****Today  
****Make evil go away**

**Code Lyoko, We'll reset it all  
****Code Lyoko, Be there when you call  
****Code Lyoko, We will stand real tall  
****Code Lyoko, Stronger after all**

**A world of machines  
****It can shadow human nature  
****And all that we need  
****Is the way to find the answer  
****And one thing is sure  
****You can count on us for good**

**Here we are, going far  
****To save all that we love  
****If we give all we've got  
****We will make it though  
****Here we are, like a star  
****Shining bright on your world  
****Today  
****Make evil go away**

**Code Lyoko, We'll reset it all  
****Code Lyoko, Be there when you call  
****Code Lyoko, We will stand real tall  
****Code Lyoko, Stronger after all**

**We'll do our best  
****To never let you down  
****We're up to the test  
****To turn this world around**

**Here we are, going far  
****To save all that we love  
****If we give all we've got  
****We will make it though  
****Here we are, like a star  
****Shining bright on your world  
****Today  
****Make evil go away**

**Here we are, going far  
****To save all that we love  
****If we give all we've got  
****We will make it though  
****Here we are, like a star  
****Shining bright on your world  
****Today  
****Make evil go away**

As everybody began to clap, the only six people in the audience who understood the significance of the song glanced at each other smiling. It was the perfect song for their adventures in Lyoko.

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Odd grinned as he packed up his guitar. "Kirsten, you were awesome!"

She just smiled back at him. Everybody finished packing their equipment and walked out to the parking lot. They stuffed their gear in the back of Odd's gigantic pickup that could fit all six of them AND their gear. He started to drive away. The kids had followed them and started to wave goodbye. Suddenly, Dan stiffened and stared at the car.

The others looked at him strangely, but he answered the unasked question.

"Guys, the brackets around the car are red…"

Everybody gasped. They all whispered commands and watched the car. Everybody saw red brackets around it, and every other car nearby. A small symbol appeared in their vision whenever they looked straight at a car.

It was XANA's symbol.

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As Odd drove, he checked his speedometer and noticed something strange…

The needle was jittering all around, and little sparks of electricity were coming from it. He gasped.

For a moment, the XANA symbol was visible on the windshield, then the car careened out of control.

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_Okay, that's it for this chapter. Yes, I know it was a cliffie. And about the cool contact-things that Dan gave them: I realized that since it is the future and all, they should have at least **some** futuristic technology. Don't worry, it most likely won't just be a random filler bit. It should have some significance by the end of this story or its sequel, which I'm planning right now._

_Anyway, keep reviewing! And I should have uploaded this yesterday, but my internet was down. Some stupid guy was working on the cable line somewhere on another street nearby, and my internet was down for hours. Stupid Comcast cable modem. Yeah, it's freakin Comcastic. Idiots…_

_Oh, I don't own Comcast, because if I did, my internet connection would be working more often!_

_Anyway, enough ranting about my stupid trivial problems. REVIEW and you'll get a cookie!_

_Oh, here's a funny quote:_

"_I get to go to lots of overseas places, like Canada." –Britney Spears. Wow…just wow…_


	12. Inferno

_Okay, here's the pivotal chapter 12 of **Living Up To A Legend**. I hope you like it!_

_Sorry it took so long. I just moved to a new house and I'm in the process of unpacking. It's been hectic, and I haven't had much spare time to work on this._

_Anyway, I'd like to give a big thanks to everybody who reviewed the last chapter. You guys are the reason why I'm still writing this story. This chapter has a bit of a twist, and I won't say any more than that._

_So, I don't have much more to say, other than this:_

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Code Lyoko, but I own this story and my OCs._

_Okay, now that I've protected myself from overeager lawyers, here's the next chapter._

_Oh, one last thing. This chapter is dedicated to **lyokolady**. The reason is at the bottom._

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_Chapter 12 – Inferno_

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The wheel jerked out of Odd's hands and the car spun around and went off the road. He yelled as he fought the wheel and tried to turn back on the road.

"What's going on?" Ulrich yelled from the back seat.

"XANA!"

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Dan looked at the others, and they headed off towards the manhole. However, they found a car sitting on top of it!

There was another car blocking the boiler room entrance, and they ran back to the front gate to find that it was also blocked off.

"Great…just great…" John mumbled.

Nina rolled her eyes. "Just use your powers!"

Eric looked up with a grin. "Of course! No puny walls can hold the heroes of Lyoko! Um…except maybe Dan."

Dan just shook his head. "No. I scanned myself as well. I just haven't gone to Lyoko yet. I've experimented and found out what my powers are, so I'll see you at the factory."

With that, he stepped into the shadow of a tree and disappeared into thin air. Eric looked at the spot where he had been for a moment.

"Um…does anybody besides me think that was just a little weird?"

Everybody shrugged and took off into the air. Nobody had been watching the sky, being too busy running away from evil cars, but if they had, they would have seen a jet of flame, a beam of light, and three people, two of which were riding boards made of stone and ice, fly off to the south-west.

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Odd transformed and shot a few arrows into the steering column, effectively destroying the steering mechanism. The car refused to stop. Finally, he just ripped out some wires from the dashboard. The car rolled to a stop and sat there for a moment.

Odd just sighed. "This is gonna cost me a **_lot_** to fix…"

With a creaking noise, the car started to slowly crumple inward as everybody yelled.

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They reached the factory to see another obstacle in front of them. There was a pile of cars blocking the entrance to the factory!

They ran all the way around the factory, succeeding only in finding out that every alternate entrance was blocked and wasting a lot of time.

Finally, Rena got fed up. She ran up to the pile of cars at the front of the factory.

"I'll take care of this." she growled.

She snapped her fingers and created several small sparks. They drifted over to the gas tanks of all of the cars.

Seeing what she was about to do, Dan ran for her. "No! The blast will kill all of us!"

She didn't listen, and John used his powers to make the ground under Dan bring him away. Dan looked at him as if to accuse him, but he just smiled. "Once she gets an idea in her head, she'll stick with it. It's best to just get the hell out of her way."

Suddenly, there was a huge explosion as every car blew up.

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"Why me?" Kirsten asked as she pushed against the side of the car, which was now so warped that there was no chance of escaping.

"Well…XANA's attacking, and we're its archenemies, so it naturally goes for us. Duh!"

She rolled her eyes. "Odd, that's not what I meant."

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The kids opened their eyes a moment after the explosion, and saw a raging inferno. It looked like a tornado of fire, with a dark figure barely visible at the center. The fire swirled toward her and was sucked into her.

The last of the fire disappeared and there was a loud bang as she was thrown back to the gang. She landed flat on her back and lay there for a moment, her entire body covered by a red aura.

John looked down at his sister.

"Sis? Are you okay?"

She groaned and slowly stood up, holding her head. She was still glowing a bright red. "Yeah…owwww…I think so…"

She slowly walked towards the factory, leaving smoldering footprints behind her. The rest of the gang just looked at each other with wide eyes, then followed her. Her headache went away as she reached the elevator, and she got in with the others.

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"Transfer John, transfer Eric, transfer Amy…scanner…virtualization!"

The doors reopened and Rena and Nina got in. "Transfer…scanner…virtualization!"

With a flash of light and a rush of air, they were in the forest region of Lyoko. They immediately took off towards the tower.

John and Amy were riding next to each other, talking. John glanced at his sister and smiled. "Well…I don't know what the hell she just did back there, but I'll just say that her powers fit her temper. Wow…she's still glowing bright red!"

Amy laughed, and John ginned at her, thinking: _Her laugh is beautiful…_

…_SHE is beautiful…_

"John?" Amy's voice penetrated his thoughts.

"Wha–ah!" He swerved to the side to avoid a tree, then let out a breath. "Phew…stupid tree! It just ran out right in front of my and I had **_NO_** time to move!"

She laughed again, her thoughts echoing his. She suddenly jerked back to the present and had to swerve to avoid another tree. They both started laughing, speeding up to catch up with the others.

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_So? Good? Don't forget to **REVIEW**!_

_Anyway, I'd just like to mention that if you haven't already, you should read the **Stronger After All** series by **lyokolady**. It's absolutely awesome. She is the one who inspired me to become a writer in the first place, and her fics are absolute masterpieces! There are currently five books in the series. That's why I dedicated this chapter to her._

_Anyway, review and you get to read my next chapter! If you don't…well…you still get to read it anyway…_

_Oh, just ignore that and review!_


	13. Fireblast

_Yay! Another action chapter!_

_Thanks for all of the reviews! I'm glad that people like my story so much. I can't wait to see what you guys think of this chapter._

_Oh, I finally worked out vaguely how I'm going to end it. It'll be a big twist, that's for sure. You won't see it coming._

_Anyway, go and read the chapter now. I just have to do the legal stuff… Oh, I've switched to normal dividers, rather than dashes. Don't ask why, because I don't know._

_**Disclaimer:** I have run out of fun ways to say that I don't own Code Lyoko, so I'll just tell you. I don't own Code Lyoko!_

_**Claimer:** I own Kirsten, all of the gang's kids, and any other kids I decide to feature in this story._

* * *

_Chapter 13 – Fireblast_

* * *

Dan's voice echoed in the air around them. "You should be able to see the tower now."

They stopped and saw the cylinder in front of them, glowing an ominous red. Amy looked around and shook her head. John came up to her with a confused expression and asked "What's wrong?"

She looked around again. "It's…it's too ea–_mmph_!" The last word was muffled as John covered her mouth. He sighed. "Don't say it. Every time somebody says it–" He was cut off by a loud boom and a laser wall just missed him. He quickly extended his bo as the others readied their weapons. He shot a look at Amy.

"Toldja!"

He ran at the nearby megatank and blocked another shot. Unfortunately, the wall kept pushing at him, and he was forced to hold his bo steady and keep the force from pushing him back. He suddenly jumped to the side and the wall passed him, quickly disappearing. He ran up to the tank and stood right in front of it. It opened again and he immediately bashed the XANA symbol, causing it to explode.

There were now two megatanks and four tarantulas in the area. Eric had claimed one of the tarantulas, and was nimbly dodging lasers. He threw five shurikens, and waited a moment for the tarantula to explode. Unfortunately, it didn't. He had missed. He cursed for a moment before smiling and closing his eyes. His hands briefly glowed yellow and the shurikens turned around in the air. The tarantula exploded and he caught theshurikens.

Amy somehow ended up fighting two tarantulas at once. She was having a difficult time dodging and blocking laser shots. She finally managed to flip up on top of a tarantula and slice open its head. It blew up and the fragments blinked for a moment before fading away. She turned around and was hit in the chest with a laser. She fell back and saw her chest sparking. Shaking her head, she stood back up, dodged another laser, and sent a jet of water at it. Her aim was perfect, and she destroyed her other foe. She looked around to see that there were only two megatanks and two tarantulas left.

John was fighting another megatank. Every time he got close enough to hit it, it would fire and he'd have to dodge. He finally was about to destroy it when it fired at point blank range. He was thrown back.

"John! You only have twenty life points left! Amy, you're at sixty, everybody else is at seventy!"

John glared at his enemy. "Fine…if that's how you want to play…" His eyes and hands flashed green, and the ground where the megatank sat tilted. It rolled off the edge and was gone. He smiled.

"Hah!"

He was then hit from behind by the remaining megatank and devirtualized. Amy glared at the offending megatank and shot a blast of water, pushing it off the edge.

Nina was playing with another tarantula. She was shooting arrows and beams of light like crazy, but she just couldn't hit it. She finally hit its head, but missed the symbol.

"Good, but you've only damaged it!"

She ground her teeth. "It's not as easy as it looks, bro. Wanna switch places?" She jumped up as the tarantula shot again, and managed to hit the symbol. She turned around to see the laser she dodged hit Eric, devirtualizing him.

Amy was about to go help Rena with the last megatank when two rolled up behind her.

"Amy! You have two megatanks behind you!" Dan yelled. She turned around and gasped as both shots hit her simultaneously. Now Rena and Ninawere the only ones left. She managed to slice the symbol on the megatank she was battling. She turned around and smiled, then noticed the two new megatanks blocking the tower entrance. Nina was trying to sneak up from behind. The tanks spotted her and rolled over there. Nina shot away like a beam of light, and the tanks followed her. Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by no less than ten megatanks!

Rena ran over to her, and found herself trapped as well. "Nina! Run!" She turned back to the megatanks and started shooting fireballs to keep their attention off Nina. It worked for the moment.

* * *

Five minutes later, Rena was down to her last ten life points, and there were still eight megatanks left, all of which were now blocking the tower completely. Nina was trying to hit them from behind with well-placed arrows, butkept missing the symbols. She tried to sneak up behind a megatank to get closer as Rena glared at XANA's monsters.

_How can I defeat them?_

She looked at her hand and noticed that she was still glowing red. It felt like pure fire was coursing through her veins.

_Maybe…_

All eight megatanks aimed at her and began to charge.

She took a deep breath.

She threw her head back and let out an unearthly scream. Her voice sounded throughout the forest region. Her body glowed brighter and brighter, until Nina couldn't bear to look at her. Then she yelled a single word.

"NOVA!"

This word was followed bya huge explosion which tore through the entire region. The force of it threw Nina, who had been trying to sneak into the tower, to the edge of the platform. The explosion was followed by a blast of fire, which ripped the megatanks apart like tissue paper, then burnt the pieces to a crisp. The land and trees of the entire forest region were stripped of their textures and became just wireframes floating above the void.

Her body lost its texture as well, and the resulting wireframe blinked a few times before disappearing.

Nina stared at thewhite lines under her, until they were filled in with green again. She shook her head and ran for the tower.

* * *

Dan was trying to run down to the scanner room, but Eric was holding him back, yelling "Wait!"

He finally calmed down. He turned back to Eric. "What? I need to see if she's okay!"

"John already went down. You know…you care about her more than a normal friend would…" He grinned as Dan rolled his eyes.

"Cut it out!"

"Fine. Nina should have deactivated the tower by now, so you should program the return to the past."

He nodded, muttering "fine," as he walked back to the console.

* * *

Rena fell out of the scanner, groaning. John caught her, smiling.

"Sis? How do you feel?"

Rena groaned again. "Like I got run over by a steamroller and blown up by a nuke at the same time."

"Good, you're okay."

She found the energy to laugh with him as they were consumed by a blinding white light.

* * *

_Okay, that was chapter 13! Don't forget to review!_

_I'm planning on having…um…five or six more XANA attacks before the grand finale. If anybody has any suggestions for what happens between attacks, I'm open to them. I can't guarantee that I'll use any of them though, since I have an idea of what I want to happen._

_Once again, please review! Or I'll update chapter 14 in April! Hmm…speaking of April…I might write an April Fools oneshot…if I ever stop being lazy and start writing more._

_I have horrible writer's block right now, but I've already written the next few chapters. By the time I upload them all, I'll probably have some inspiration and there won't be a huge updating slump._


	14. Oops!

_Yay! I got more reviews! I have 164 reviews! I have almost three times as many reviews as Code : Changes! Thanks guys. I love you all, and you all get cookies! YAY! COOKIES!_

_Um…anyway…I don't really have much else to say at the moment. I'll talk more later._

_**Disclaimer:** I DON'T own Code Lyoko. I DO own all of my OCs, including Jeff Miller. No he's not a major character._

_At least, not yet…_

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_Chapter 14 – Oops!_

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They went through the whole concert all over again, but the adults spent the rest of the day walking around the campus,chatting with their children.

As they were walking and talking, Nina looked up at Aelita with a confused expression.

"Mom? I didn't know you were in a band!"

Aelita just smiled, her green eyes going unfocused as she remembered. "Well, I wasn't before. The PRP only had one singer and a different drummer. They were formed before I was freed from Lyoko."

Odd smiled. "Yeah…what an idiot…"

Ulrich glanced over at him. "Who? Nicholas?" he asked.

Odd nodded and laughed. "Of course! He was one of Sissi's toadies. As far as I know, he never thought for himself once! Why, I think it was actually Sissi who got him to audition!"

Ulrich looked in front of Odd, who was not watching where he was going. "Yeah, he was dumb, but…"

There was a loud smash as Odd ran into a tree and fell on his back. Everybody started laughing. Even Odd himself joined in after the pain in his head went away. He stood up and looked at Ulrich, smiling sheepishly. "Finish your sentence."

"…but he wasn't the dumbest."

Odd's eyes lit up. "Oh! You must mean Sissi herself!" Ulrich started chuckling, and he shrugged. "What?"

"I meant you."

"Oh…right…"

They all started laughing again.

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Jeremie sat in his seat at the factory. He was going to crack open Franz Hopper's notes for the first time in almost thirty years. At the moment though, he was just staring absently at the monitor, thinking about the virtualization process.

_What if Dan and I are unable to virtualize them? I suppose Aelita can, and Nina could learn how, but it would be easier if I could automate the process…_

He wondered how he would go about it, then started laying out the basics.

_It'll have to distinguish between all of us using our genetic sequence…_

Maybe if he linked it to the superscanner, and linked it to his cell phone, it could alert him and virtualize anybody who got there before him…

He mused for a while until he suddenly remembered an old videogame he had seen Odd play when they were still at Kadic. He had tried unsuccessfully to play it himself. There was something about that game…something in it…

He looked at the holographic map of Lyoko and smiled, cracking his knuckles as he turned to the keyboard.

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Rena was in chemistry class with the others, staring angrily at the bunson burner in front of her. They were doing some kinds of experiment today, something about chemical reactions, or something like that. She was still very tired from the ordeal several days ago, and wished it was Friday.

_Ugh, it feels like a Friday. It's only Monday. I'll never make it through this week…_

She shook her head and cleared her mind, then picked up the sparker-thing (she didn't know what it was called) and squeezed it, trying fruitlessly to produce sparks. Dan had already given up and was trying to get Mrs. Hertz to lend him a match or lighter. Finally, she gave up and dropped the sparker, glaring at John and Eric, as well as Amy and Nina, who had already lit theirs.

She looked at the burner again.

_Fire…_

She rolled her eyes and smacked her forehead, muttering "Now why didn't I think of that before?"

She closed her eyes and quickly waved a hand, which was glowing red, over the burner. It lit immediately. She smiled as Dan saw her.

"Well, she wouldn't give me any matches, so I think…hey! You did it! How?"

She smiled. "Well, I suddenly realized that there was no point in having fire powers if I couldn't use them. I just lit it myself."

"Right. We should have thought of that sooner." She nodded and looked at him, smiling. They both noticed at the exact same time, blushing and looking away immediately.

John and Eric were partners as well. They had already lit the burner and were mixing some of their chemicals. John looked over at his sister and smirked. "Those two are so perfect together," he whispered.

Eric looked up and grinned. "Yeah, they're in love, like you and my sister."

John jerked up. "What!" He accidentally bumped a beaker that was full to the brim. It tipped slightly and a few drops of the solution in it went into the one next to it. He looked back at it and saw it churning.

"Uh oh…"

Eric's eyes widened. "It's gonna blow! Duck and Cover!"

He and John dropped to the ground and rolled under the lab table. Everybody else followed suit, with Mrs. Hertz crouching behind her desk.. There was a huge explosion, which threw bits of glass and drops of chemicals everywhere and charred the lab table.

John and Eric rose slowly, grinning sheepishly as Mrs. Hertz stood up behind her desk and glared at them. They began to mutter incoherently.

"Um…uh…hehe…"

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"I swear it was an accident! Eric said somethingthat surprised me, and I twitched slightly and mixed two chemicals I shouldn't have! I'm really sorry!"

Mr. Dunbar sighed. "I know, but it still happened and something needs to be done about it. You two destroyed and damaged school property, as well as endangering the well-being of others in the classroom. You two will have two hours of detention every day until Friday, starting today, immediately after school."

The two looked down at the ground. "Yes sir," they mumbled in unison.

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After school that day, they called the rest of the gang and told them that they would be gone for the next two hours. Then, then went to detention in the Library and sat down at one of the tables.

They were supervised by Jeff Miller, the new Kadic gym teacher and doer of various other odd jobs, such as this one. He was basically Jim's replacement, and the two looked similar, almost identical! Despite what most people who remembered the younger Jim thought, they were not related.

John looked at Jeff and saw that he wasn't paying attention. He was reading some random magazine or something. He pulled a rock out of his pocket and made it float above his palm. It moved around in circles and began randomly moving around above the table. Eric saw this and decided to play around a bit too. He pulled some lead out of his pencil and ground it up with a book. Then he used some winds to make a graphite cyclone.

John dropped his rock in the center of the cyclone and watched it collapse. Eric wasn't paying enough attention to deal with that sudden change. He chuckled quietly as Eric glared at him.

Jeff looked up from his magazine. "Be quiet! You're in detention, not on break!"

They sat still and silent until he went back to his magazine, then started to whisper quietly.

"XANA hasn't attacked for a while. I wonder what he…she…it…whatever…is planning," Eric muttered.

John just smiled. "We'll deal with that when it happens. Meanwhile, we can relax a bit."

"But I like it on Lyoko! Just not when there are too many monsters."

"Well, if my sister can pull off what she did last time, we won't have a problem with that."

Eric grinned and whispered slightly louder. "Yeah…it was freakin' awesome! I was wondering though…remember that first attack? Before we knew about Lyoko? Your parents transformed into their Lyoko characters to fight the tarantulas. Do you think _we_ can do that?"

"Who knows? Let's try after detention."

"BE QUIET!" Jeff interrupted their conversation.

"Yes sir," they blurted.

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_Okay, that's all folks! At least until next time! Don't forget to review and give me feedback! And I want honest feedback. Don't just say it was a great story…blah blah blah…unless you can't think of anything wrong with it. I can take criticism._

_No, that does not mean you should flame me. I want constructive criticism, not flames. If you flame me…well…Rena wants to practice her powers a bit. Flamers make great moving targets. XD_

_Anyway, just click that button and **REVIEW**!_


	15. Practice

_Yay! Chapter 15! This is a good chapter, thought the next one will probably be better. After all, filler chapters are never as good as action chapters. But enough about that, before I give away what happens. Thanks for the many reviews I've gotten up until this point. And right now, I know for a fact that this story is going to continue well beyond twenty chapters, so rejoice!_

_Anyway, let's just get to the story, after a word from our sponsors:_

_**I don't own Code Lyoko. I own Kirsten and the kids.**_

_Now, on to the chapter!_

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_Chapter 15 – Practice_

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Rena and Amy were deep in the forest, high up on a cliff and far away from all paths. After all, they were sparring, and their techniques were a bit…unusual…

Amy was hiding in a tree, spying on Rena as she searched all over the ground. It was early December, but it hadn't snowed yet. Amy smiled, remembering what Rena had told her during their last sparring session.

"_Always expect the unexpected, and try to be unexpected too."_

She smiled and concentrated, hiding her hands behind her back and closing her eyes to dampen the blue glow. She shot a blast of water at Rena.

Rena spotted the dim blue aura and easily evaded the blast. She smiled as she shot a firebolt in the direction of the tree. Amy blocked it with a water shield and dropped to the ground. She was about to shoot another water blast when her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. She held up her hands in a "time-out" gesture and pulled out the phone, answering it.

"Yeah? Hey Eric…you're done for now? Good…the cliff, I'm sparring with Rena…I'll show you…call me back when you come in…you do? Okay…bye."

She hung up and looked at Rena. "Our bro's got out of detention and are gonna come here to spar with us after they try something."

"What are they trying?"

"They wouldn't tell me."

They continued sparring.

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Eric and John were sitting in their dorm. John sighed.

"So, how do we do this?" he asked.

"Um…it looks like you have to concentrate on something, then say something out loud…"

John rolled his eyes. "That helps…"

"Too bad they don't say how to do this in the books."

"Yeah, I know… I'm assuming we concentrate on our avatars. Let's do that and just say random stuff until it happens."

Eric shrugged. "Okay. Transform! Go! Abra kadabra! Go Lyoko!"

"It's not working…" John muttered.

"Yeah, maybe we should go read 'Code Lyoko' again and see––" Eric cut himself off as his body started to glow bright yellow.

"It's working!" he yelled.

He rose up a foot into the air, still glowing yellow. There was a bright flash of light, and he fell back to the ground, in his Lyoko form. He reached into the pouch at his waist and pulled out a shuriken. He smiled.

"That's it! You have to say 'Code Lyoko'!"

John transformed too, and looked down at himself as he pulled out his bo staff.

"This is awesome!"

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Amy answered her cell again, speaking for a second before hanging up. She turned to Rena and Nina, who had just come back a minute ago after exploring the forest.

"They're here, and they have something to show us. They won't tell me what! Anyway, Nina, could you send up a signal so they know where to go?"

Nina nodded and shot a ball of light into the sky, where it hovered directly over them.

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John and Eric, exploring the forest, saw a second sun rise into the air.

"That would be Nina," Eric said, smiling slightly. John glanced at him and saw a blank expression on his face.

"Eric? Hello? HELLO? EARTH TO LOVER-BOY!"

"Huh?" he asked, snapping out of his trance.

"Thinking of Nina?"

Eric blushed. "Uh…yeah…I was… Does it really matter?"

"So, you're really in love with her huh?" John prodded.

"Yeah, just as much as you are with my sister," Eric shot back at him.

Now John was blushing. "Forget about that. Let's take a short-cut."

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Rena looked out over the forest, and saw two figures rise from it, one riding on a board of stone. The two figures flew towards the cliff.

Moments later, John and Eric landed on the edge of the cliff. They grinned, running up to the group.

"We have something to show you!" they said in unison.

Rena rolled her eyes. "You told us that already. Just show us!"

"Fine. Ready John?"

John nodded, and they both closed their eyes, muttering something that the others couldn't hear. John began to glow bright green, and Eric was glowing bright yellow. They rose up a foot into the air.

There were two bright flashes of yellow and green light, and they dropped back to the ground, smiling as the others looked at them in awe. Eric threw his hands up in the air.

"Ta-daa!"

The three girls just stared. John and Eric now looked exactly like their Lyoko avatars. John pulled out his bo staff and twirled it around a couple times, then looked around.

"Hey, where's Dan?"

Rena rolled her eyes. "I have a guess. He wouldn't answer his phone, so he's either doing homework or on his…what do you call these computer-thingies anyway?"

Eric shrugged. "Computer-thingies sounds fine…"

"Anyway, I'll go get him!" she yelled as she took of on a jet of flame.

"So?"

John looked at the two girls that were left. "Um…uh…what?" he asked.

Nina rolled her eyes. "Show us how!"

"Okay, you just have to say 'Code Lyoko' and concentrate on your Lyoko avatar." Eric explained.

"It's that easy?" Amy asked.

The two boys nodded. Dan stepped out from under the shadow of a tree as Rena landed back on the cliff. They explained everything again, then joined in on the sparring.

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Nina waited in a tree, contemplating how to hide herself better. Suddenly, she had an idea.

_If I can control light…_

She smiled as she closed her eyes and concentrated. She felt the light hitting her, bouncing off of her. Then, the light no longer hit her.

She was invisible.

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_Where could she be?_

Eric was walking throughout the forest, looking for Nina. She was definitely good at hiding. They had eventually decided to play hide-and-seek, because they were tired of fighting. Eric had found everybody except Nina, and now they had all split up and started to look for her.

But she was nowhere to be found!

Then, he suddenly stopped as he heard a twig snap. He whirled around, but there was nobody there.

He kept walking forward, then ran into something.

"Oof!"

The invisible barrier became visible again, and was revealed to be Nina. She bent down.

"Eric? Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Great trick with the light by the way," Eric said.

"Thanks."

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After sparring for several hours, they headed back to school for dinner, then went to sleep, ready for whatever the next day would throw at them.

Or so they thought…

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_Yes! I know! I'm evil! I don't care! I'm leaving you with a cliffie because I feel like it. I'll tell you a little about what will happen next. Lessee…there will be a XANA attack soon, but I can't say when. Right now, there's something missing from this story, which will become apparent after the XANA attack._

_That's really all I can say. See you next time! Please please review! Even if you don't have an account, anonymous people can still review!_

_Oh, and I just started reading a pretty good story by **ClInIcAlLyInSaNeChIcK** (wow, that's annoying to type...) called **"Heart2Heart"**. Go read it some time if you're okay with UxOC! (Yumi moved back to Japan. If you want any more info, just check out the story!)_

_My 200th reviewer gets a dedication, so please review! Also, I'll be posting at least one new story during Spring Break, as well as updating this one, so be sure to watch my profile! I'm currently writing four stories besides this one, and many more random ideas floating around in my head. The story that I'm most likely to post will be much darker than this one, and slightly AU, for reasons I can't divulge yet. It is mostly focused on Ulrich._

_Then, I'm planning an interesting UxY story, which I'll post when I finish planning the story and writing the first chapter. I also have two otherunposted works-in-progressmentioned in my profile, so take a look! Once again, I'll post one of my four new stories soon, either during Spring Break or earlier. I'll just post the one I finish first, or the one you guys want the most (tell me in your review!)._

_See you soon with chapter 16!_


	16. Snow Day

_Yes, I know, I'm late. And there's a huge cliffie at the end of this chapter. So sue me._

_Actually, please don't. Anyway this chapter's a really good one. By the end, you should see some sort of pattern to this story emerging._

_Okay, I dedicate chapters to each 100th review (100th, 200th, etc.). I have a grand total of…_

_198 reviews. Just two more!_

_Anyway, on to the legal stuff._

_**I DON'T own Code Lyoko, but I DO own Kirsten and the children, and the plot, so don't steal anything!**_

Now, on to chapter 16!

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_Chapter 16 – Snow Day_

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Early in the morning, John's cell phone could be heard ringing loudly. It nearly woke him up.

_Nearly_ being the key word.

A hand reached out from underneath the blanket and groped around, finding the alarm clock on the nightstand.

"Mmm…stupid clock…Saturday…mmm…"

The hand tapped the snooze button out of habit, even though the alarm clock had been turned off the night before. The noise refused to stop, so he punched the alarm clock. When that had no effect, he reached for his cell phone and pulled it back under the blanket with his eyes still closed.

"Mmm…"

"Hey John, it's Dad."

"Hng…mmm?"

He heard chuckling on the other end. "Did I wake you up? Sorry. Anyway, we were thinking…well…just look outside."

He slowly pushed the covers off. He opened his eyes, and the sudden light from the window blinded him as he fell out of bed with a yell and a thump.

"John! Are you okay?"

He sighed as he got up, slowly opening his eyes and letting them get used to the light. "Yeah. The stupid sun blinded me and I fell out of bed…woah…" He trailed off.

He had reached the window and looked outside to see that the school was covered in a white blanked. He woke up instantly. "It snowed!" he yelled.

"Yeah, " Ulrich said. "Odd decided that we should go snowboarding, so I just called to let you know. We've already got everything, so we'll just come and pick you guys up in two hours. Go wake up the others and get ready!"

He grinned. "YES!"

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They all piled into a huge van and drove for a few hours to reach the mountains. Everybody, even Jeremie and Aelita, had rented snowboards the other day. They all got out of the car and reached the lifts.

Kirsten quickly took charge. "Okay. Put your front foot in the binding and tighten the straps. Then use your back foot to push your way to the lift," she instructed.

Ulrich looked at her with a puzzled expression. "How do you know so much about snowboarding? You lived in California!"

Odd just smiled. "Ever heard of Lake Tahoe? They have awesome ski resorts there!"

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They went down a few small hills, then split up. Odd, Kirsten, Eric, and Amy, having snowboarded many times before, went up to the top of a black diamond course. Everybody else went up a blue square. They reached the top, and Aelita looked down at the hill. Jeremie saw a bit of fear in her face, so he smiled and put an arm around her shoulders.

"Just imagine you're on the overboard," he said.

She nodded and took off down the slope. It immediately became apparent that she knew what she was doing, and everybody else followed her down. John also did well, since he had a lot of experience riding his "rock-board."

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Eventually, Odd challenged Aelita to a race. She quickly agreed, and they went to the top of the mountain. They got off the lift and shivered at the cold wind. No nearby mountains were higher, so there was nothing to block the wind.

Kirsten immediately took off down the hill. She would decide who won in the event of a close finish. Everybody else finished getting ready as Odd and Aelita slid up to the edge of the flattened peak.

Ulrich smiled as he came up beside them. "We seem to be doing a lot of racing lately, first on Lyoko, now on a mountain. What's next?"

Odd rolled his eyes. "Just let us start."

"Fine. Ready? Set? GO!"

Odd and Aelita took off. They started neck-and-neck, one pulling slightly ahead, then falling back as the other pulled ahead. Everybody else followed closely behind them.

Odd pulled ahead, bent low to increase his speed. Aelita narrowed her eyes, then smirked as she got an idea. She realized that she didn't have much time, since the bottom of the course was close. She opened her mouth and sang a long, beautiful note. Twenty feet in front of Odd, a dark mist slowly appeared, coalescing into a snowdrift. Odd yelled as he hit it, going top speed. His board plowed into the drift and he felt himself suddenly stop. Powder flew up and lazily drifted back to the ground.

Aelita, on the other hand, flew up and off the snowdrift, spinning a 360 before landing cleanly on the other side. She passed Kirsten and slid to a stop. Odd got up and followed, pouting slightly. Everyone except Jeremie finished soon after him.

"Why is everybody always unfair to me?" Odd asked. "First Ulrich stabs me with his sword—"

"Only 'cause you shot me!" Ulrich shot back.

"Only 'cause you devirtualized my overboard!"

"Only 'cause you devirtualized my overbike!"

"Only 'cause you…you…you were winning!"

Yumi sighed. "This conversation sounds eerily familiar…" she muttered.

Odd rolled his eyes and continued. "Anyway, now Aelita cheats too by materializing a snowdrift!" He paused for a moment, then sighed. "Oh fine, even though you cheated, I'll let you win. After all, I've never seen you use your power before, and it was pretty cool!"

Aelita just smiled. Suddenly, a flash of blue went past the group and they heard a yell. Aelita rolled her eyes and sang another long note. There was a muffled "whoompf" as they turned around to see Jeremie's lower body sticking out of a newly-formed snowdrift. Everybody laughed at his position.

He pulled himself out, muttering darkly as he turned around. Suddenly, he froze, staring up at the top of the mountain with wide eyes. The others heard a rumbling behind them and turned to look, also freezing for a moment when they saw what Jeremie saw.

A black XANA symbol seemed to be scorched into the snow (if you can actually scorch snow) near the top of the mountain. There was a loud crack and a rumble as the snow flew out in all directions. The snow started a chain-reaction, which quickly made itself apparent.

"AVALANCHE!" they all cried.

They spun around and took off down the mountain on their snowboards, trying to outrun the avalanche that was quickly gaining on them.

Odd leaned down, trying to minimize wind resistance so he could go faster. They had to reach the bottom and get to safety! He looked behind him and saw the avalanche itself, no more than a hundred feet away. Broken tree-trunks and rocks were caught in it, churning with the snow. Finally, Odd gave up and concentrated. There was a flash of purple light, and he was suddenly holding his overboard. He loosened the straps on his bindings and jumped out of them, dropping the overboard and landing on it. He flew up into the sky, speeding along away from the avalanche, which was slowly dropping behind. The other adults followed his example, and soon Ulrich and Jeremie were riding the overbike and Yumi had picked up Aelita on the overwing.

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Amy looked up from the ground in front of her to see "The Village," the large shopping center and food court at the entrance of the resort. She saw the miniscule people suddenly start to look up at the avalanche. She heard their yells from way up on the mountain, as they ran for their cars.

Unfortunately, many of them were scared stiff, and were frozen to the ground.

"Remember the fire!" Rena yelled from nearby. "Pull it in!"

Amy nodded as Rena took off with a jet of flame that incinerated her board. Everybody else was already in the air. Amy turned the snow in front of her to ice, so her board skidded quickly down the slope, slowly drawing ahead of the avalanche. She stopped quickly, and turned to face it. She looked behind her to see three flying vehicles, a firebolt, a beam of light, a floating rock, and a flying person make their way to the village to help the people get out of there. Dan had already disappeared into the shadows earlier.

She closed her eyes and threw her arms up to protect her face.

Then the avalanche hit her.

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_I know, it's a cliffie, but I'll try to update sooner than I did, maybe even sooner than you think. Of course, I'm routinely late, so it'll probably be later than you think, but…whatever…_

_Anyway, did you like it? Please review, and review honestly. The more reviews I get, the more likely I am to update soon! I'll dedicate the next chapter to the 200th reviewer (soooooo close!) so review soon!_

_See you soon! (Hopefully…)_


	17. An Unexpected Development

_Yay! Here's chapter 16! There's some action, and stuff, so enjoy! Something happens at the end. It…well…I'll just let you find out for yourself. I'll try to update within the next week, okay?_

_Anyway, on to the legal stuff…_

_**Disclaimer:** I don't own Code Lyoko_

_**Claimer:** I own Kirsten, the kids, and the plot for this story._

_This chapter is dedicated Rymac91, my 200th reviewer! Congrats! This chapter is also semi-dedicated to everybody who regularly reviews this story. After all, without you guys, I never would have made it all the way to chapter 17! And don't worry, I have many more chapters to go, though I have a bit of writer's block for the moment._

_I'll continue to post new chapters until I reach the chapter I'm stuck on, which is probably 20 or 21 or something. By then, I'll probably come up with something and be writing steadily again._

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_Chapter 17 – An Unexpected Development_

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She was falling, falling through a maelstrom of snow, ice, and debris. Small shards of ice cut at her face and tore her clothes. She quickly encased herself in a shield of ice.

Now she was safe, or as safe as you can be when you are in an ice cocoon in an avalanche. Suddenly, she realized that she had made a mistake.

She had blocked herself away from the avalanche's power, but now the avalanche's power was blocked from her. She couldn't stop it unless she dropped her shield.

She sighed and took a deep breath, still safe in the relative calm. Finally, she let the shield go, and dropped back into the chaos. She tumbled head-over-heels, gravity pulling her down along with the avalanche. If she tried to stop herself, she would just be buried by the snow.

She closed her eyes and focused on the snow and ice around her. After all, it was just water, and she was good with water. She blocked out everything else, and the rumbling sound disappeared. The pain that the avalanche was causing faded, to be replaced by another, as her veins filled with a cold, blue fire.

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The village was empty now. It was all up to Amy at this point. The others saw the avalanche hit her and held their breath, safe up in the air. Occasionally, they saw an arm or leg poke out of the churning snow for a moment, then quickly disappear. They all held their breaths and crossed their fingers.

Several minutes later, the snow shot out in all directions, then was sucked back in as if there was a black hole in the center. The last of the churning snow and ice disappeared with a bang, as a bright blue flame shot up into the air. It fell and landed roughly on the snow-covered ground.

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"Amy? Amy! AMY!"

Amy slowly opened her eyes, then quickly snapped them shut as blinding blue light pierced her pupils. Her head felt like it was being repeatedly smashed by a sledgehammer, and her bones felt like they were being ground into powder.

However, all of that combined still didn't equal the burn of the blue fire flowing through her veins.

"Ooohhh…owwww…"

She opened her eyes again and rode out the new wave of pain, letting her eyes get used to the light. The splitting headache slowly became just a dull pain, and she was able to sit up.

Rena smiled from where she was sitting in front of Amy. "There, now you know how I felt, except I think you had it worse, since I never blacked out. Don't worry, most of the pain will be gone soon."

Amy nodded and stood up, the last vestiges of her headache already draining away, and that cold blue fire beginning to ache, rather than burn. She looked around and saw that she was in the scanner room.

"How'd I get here?"

John stepped into her vision. "I took you on my rock-board."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. I'll go help on Lyoko now."

John raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? What happened to you doesn't seem like something you can just shrug off. Maybe you should sit this one out."

She shook her head. "No, I'm fine now. I think the power of the avalanche is giving me some energy to go on. I'll be fi–" She stopped suddenly and looked around, just noticing the blue light in the room. It didn't seem to have a source. She looked down and gasped.

She was glowing a blindingly bright blue. She shook her head in wonder. That day was getting weirder and weirder…

She shrugged and looked back up. "So, who's left on Lyoko?"

John smiled sheepishly. "There was this huge army of hornets, crabs, and tarantulas, so everybody except you was virtualized. Everybody has already been devirtualized except Aelita, Nina, and Ulrich."

She stepped into the scanner and the doors shut. When it scanned her, the usual yellow light was completely drowned out by the blue light coming from her.

She felt the familiar blast of air, then her sense of touch disappeared. She landed on Lyoko just as Ulrich was devirtualized. The only ones left now were her, Aelita, and Nina. Everybody else was probably in the lab by now.

Her body felt wrong. It felt strangely…fluid, and had felt that way since she had woken up, but hadn't noticed it because of the pain. She felt like her body was flowing whenever she moved.

Actually, it felt great!

She created her ice-board and was surprised when it appeared with almost no effort. She was in the desert sector, so it should have taken more energy.

She looked down and noticed that she was still glowing, which means that the power of the avalanche was still stored in her.

She flew off towards the tower.

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Amy came upon a large plateau and saw Nina, who was jumping and flipping around to dodge attacks, shooting arrows as she flipped in mid-air. Aelita was constantly singing, creating rocks to provide cover from the army of crabs and hornets that were left from earlier.

Amy joined in and made short work of the crabs, freezing them and slicing them open with her extendable claws.

Aelita ran for the tower, then stopped when she heard Jeremie's voice.

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Jeremie virtualized Amy, then glanced at another screen to see that XANA was trying to hack into the scanning protocol. Then the keyboard stopped responding.

He watched, unable to do anything, as XANA opened the scanner information and accessed the profiles. Then the computer went back to normal and Jeremie ran a full scan of the supercomputer. He gasped and contacted the three left on Lyoko.

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"XANA copied the vDNA from the profiles! I don't know why, but…" He trailed off and the three warriors on Lyoko heard a gasp.

Aelita stopped and looked up. "Yes?" she asked quietly.

"Don't go in the tower! There's something in it, but I can't tell what it is!"

"Is it an enemy?"

"Yes! I mean…I think so…"

A small patch of the tower started to shimmer as something came through it. It looked at Aelita, and she gasped. Amy ran up to her and saw it.

The figure was completely black. Its eyes were entirely red, with a black XANA symbol in the place of the pupil.

Amy gasped when she saw its outline, with a characteristic spike on top of its head.

"D…Dad?"

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_DUN DUN DUN…_

_Okay, that's it for this chapter. Once again, I'll try to post the next one some time this week. Please PLEASE review, kay?_

_Oh, here's a quote-of-the-day…er…I mean…quote-of-the-chapter. (I should really do these more often…)_

"_Lastly, in the 'here we go again' category, Rockstar is being sued for the umpteenth time…yeah, take a number." –Official PlayStation Magazine, Issue # 103 (April 2006)_

_Don't forget to review!_


	18. Water and Earth

_Well, here you go! Here's chapter eighteen! I'm really really REALLY sorry for the long wait, especially to those of you who were under the impression that I would update last Tuesday. Once again, I'm really sorry. First I had problems getting this chapter right (I rewrote it three times!) then I had problems with my internet connection, then FF . net wouldn't let me upload…_

_Sigh…_

_Anyway, on to the legal stuff._

_**Disclaimer: **For the nth time, I DON'T own Code Lyoko! Got it? If I did, season 3 would have already started, and Odd would have a girlfriend for longer than a week or two!_

_**Claimer:** I own this story and all of my OCs._

_Anyway, I have a little surprise for you at the end of the chapter. Trust me, you'll love it. If you don't, give me a valid reason why in a review, since I can't think of any offhand. Also, I did a new divider, which looked really neat, but backslashes and underscores don't show up...so it's just slashes._

_So, get reading!_

**_

* * *

_**

****

**_Chapter 18 –Water and Earth_**

* * *

_**Last Time:**_

_A small patch of the tower started to shimmer as something came through it. It looked at Aelita, and she gasped. Amy ran up to her and saw it._

_The figure was completely black. Its eyes were entirely red, with a black XANA symbol in the place of the pupil._

_Amy gasped when she saw its outline, with a characteristic spike on top of its head._

"_D…Dad?"_

* * *

Odd glanced at Jeremie in the lab.

"Huh?" was all he could ask.

Jeremie's eyes widened as he realized what had happened.

* * *

"Of course! XANA stole DNA from the profiles! He must have used it to make clones!"

Amy nodded and glared at the silhouette of her father. The figure stood absolutely still for a few moments, studying its opponents, then leapt into action.

Three black streaks shot out of its fists. Amy threw up an ice shield and saw black arrows embed themselves in it. The silhouette seemed to smile for a moment, then flipped away as she shot a blast of ice at it. Then she had to dodge a couple more laser arrows.

* * *

In the lab, everybody was crowded around the computer screen. Even Nina, who had been hit by a stray laser arrow, was there.

Jeremie had called up a visual to watch events unfold. Amy was dodging and blocking arrows as fast as she could.

"I can't beat him," she muttered as she dodged more arrows and shot another ice blast. The silhouette crossed its arms and a pulsing dark circle appeared in front of it, blocking the ice. She groaned as she contemplated how to beat this new enemy.

With a sudden burst of inspiration, Rena jumped up and grabbed the headset from Jeremie, despite his protests. She put it on.

"Amy! Remember what I did before? Just let it all flow out!"

* * *

Back on Lyoko, Amy nodded, then jerked as she was hit. Her life points dropped to ten. She looked down and confirmed that her body was still glowing bright blue. She ran at the clone and let out a piercing scream. Her aura flashed such a bright blue that it was almost white.

"ICE VORTEX!" she yelled, between two bouts of screaming.

She rose up into the air, still screaming, and was surrounded by a whirling tornado of ice spikes. They ripped into the fake Odd tore its virtual body to pieces as it was devirtualizing. The desert sector shook as the ice spikes tore into it, bits and pieces of its texture blanking out, leaving just a wireframe.

Amy devirtualized, her last ten life points expended. Aelita watched as the sector slowly retextured itself. When the wireframes were completely covered with texture again, she ran for the tower.

* * *

Jeremie watched as the tower deactivated and let out a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. The elevator door opened and Amy stepped out, slowly shuffling over to the group crowded around the computer screen. She wobbled a bit, then fell into John's arms, fast asleep.

He lowered her down to the floor and smiled slightly as everybody else (except Jeremie, who was typing furiously) exchanged knowing glances.

Jeremie broke the silence. "We'll have to go back. I hate to strengthen XANA yet again, but we have no choice. There is no way that anyone will be able to explain away the freak avalanche, as well as the fact that it just disappeared after Amy got caught in it."

The others nodded as Jeremie hit the enter key and watched as the holomap was replaced by a column of white light, which expanded into a sphere and consumed the world.

* * *

Once again, they went snowboarding. Once again, Odd challenged Aelita to a race. She tried her trick again, but Odd was prepared this time. He swerved around the snowdrift instead of hitting it. Unfortunately for him, he lost his lead and the race ended up being a tie.

Everybody was cold and soaking wet by the end of the day, but they were far from miserable. They were tired and drained of almost all of their energy (especially Amy), but were still as happy as they could be.

* * *

Eric and Rena were sitting in the boys' dorm, talking.

"You know, we really have to set them up."

Rena looked at Eric, confused. "Set who up?" she asked.

Eric rolled his eyes. "That should be obvious! C'mon Rena, who do you _think_ I'm talking about? Which two people are always looking at each other and blushing? Which two people are always thinking about each other?"

"…you and Nina?"

Eric glared at her. "No, you and Dan!"

"Haha…very funny. Never mind that. I _do_ see your point though. They don't want to admit it to each other, but it's _so_ obvious!"

Eric just smiled. "And I have the perfect idea. Let's commence 'Operation Set-Up'!"

* * *

Later that day, Eric challenged John to a game of soccer. John agreed, since the soccer season was going to start up soon and he wanted to get some practice in. Rena and Amy decided to be the goalies, with John and Eric doing their best to play all of the other positions.

Eric and John faced off at the center of the field. Between them, Nina was standing and holding the ball. She and Dan had decided to referee the game. She dropped the ball and jumped backwards, running off to the edge of the field as John took the ball, running down the field to the goal.

* * *

Ten minutes later, everybody was panting hard, even the goalies.

John was up by one, and Eric was taking the ball towards the goal. John ran up and stole it before Eric shot it at Rena, and took it back towards the other end of the field. He stopped in front of the goal and looked back to see that Eric had given up on chasing him and was watching from the other end of the field. He shrugged and kicked the ball straight up in the air.

As the ball started to come down, he jumped up. Amy watched in fascination as he flew up into the air as if in slow motion. He was facing away from the goal. He began to twist in the air, his right foot rising up above his head. When he was fully upside-down, his foot hit the ball and sent it towards the goal as time sped back up.

He landed on his back as the ball flew towards the goal. Amy dove forward to grab the ball, but missed and landed on top of John. The ball sailed into the goal, but neither of them noticed.

They were too busy looking at each other, blushing bright red.

Eric and Rena high-fived each other as they watched events unfold from the opposite end of the field. So what if "Operation Set-Up" never really started? They still ended up with the same result.

Unconsciously, Amy slowly leaned down as John's head tilted up. Their lips met in a brief, yet eternal kiss.

_

* * *

_

There you go. Happy? Now does the chapter title make sense? If you think that was it for fluff, you're VERY wrong. This story is long overdue for some fluff, so expect a lot in the coming chapters! In case you're wondering, this story will probably be longer than thirty chapters at the rate I'm going. I doubt it'll get up to forty, and I know for sure that I will not be breaking fifty!

_Anyway, here's a random quote straight from one of my friends:_

"_Okay, so here's my plan of world domination. First, I'll get John into power, and have him rule for three years. During those three years, he will take away everybody's civil rights and become a ruthless dictator. Then, I'll boot him out and take over, and slowly give back a couple rights to them. Then they will all love me and do my bidding!" –Kirstin._

_Strangely enough, John seems to like this plan._

_Anyway, review, and I'll try to crank out another chapter before the end of Easter Break, but I doubt I'll be able to upload it until long afterward._

_One more thing. Go check out the FanFiction Writers Den. It's a new forum for FanFiction writers to advertise their works or just talk about…pretty much anything! Anyway, the URL is **Fanwritefic . conforums . com**, but without the spaces. Note that there is no **www** or anything like that, okay? Since it's so new, there are practically no members, and we need more! It's **Akito Shaoku Mizukouken**'s forum (for those of you who don't know him, go read Code : Kouken and its sequel)._

…_anyway…REVIEW!_


	19. Fluff and Fangirls

_Hey there! This is John. Um…well…Rycr refused to come this time, but I don't know why. ducks as tomatoes and other rotten vegetables and hard objects are thrown at him HEY! I'm not the author! Don't blame me!_

_Now I see why he didn't want to come. Anyway, he found his notebook the other day and has been furiously writing in it ever since. He told me to tell you all that he's sorry he hasn't updated in forever. However, there IS a bright side! He's going to do his best to finish the story in a couple weeks, if not less. He is going to work his butt off this weekend, just for you guys. So do us all a favor and don't get too mad at him, okay?_

_Anyway, lots of fluff involving yours truly in this chapter, so you guys should like it. By the way, to begin making it up to you guys, Rycr kindly wrote a chapter nearly twice the length of a normal chapter._

_Anyway, let's get the rest of the stuff out of the way and move on to the story!_

_**Disclaimer/claimer/etc.:** Rycr does not own Code Lyoko, its characters, or anything like that. He just owns my friends and I, as well as this story's plot._

_On to the story!_

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_Chapter 19 – Fluff and Fangirls_

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**Last Time:**

_Unconsciously, Amy slowly leaned down as John's head tilted up. Their lips met in a brief, yet eternal kiss_.

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For both of them, the kiss lasted for an eternity. Their shapes connected and became one. They both felt solid and fluid at the same time, lost in the sensation of their first kiss.

After the end of forever, they broke apart, still staring at each other. "I love you," they whispered in unison.

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"Well…so much for my brilliant plan! Why couldn't they have done this earlier, before I wasted so much time coming up with a plan to get them together? I set up an elaborate scheme, then they just go ahead and get together on their own!" Eric complained to Rena, who just laughed.

"What _was_ your plan, anyway?"

Eric sighed. "Well…it was just going to be some cliché blind date at a random restaurant…"

"Anyway," Rena began, with a mischievous grin, "now it's time for phase two of 'Project Set-Up'."

Eric shrank back from her as she laughed evilly. "…Phase…phase two? What phase two?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"You'll see…" she replied. She walked up to her bedroom, cackling all the way.

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Odd smiled as he walked up to the Stern's front door and knocked. Ulrich quickly opened the door and smiled back.

"Hey man! How's my best bud doing?" Odd asked.

Ulrich chuckled slightly. "Just fine, my good friend."

Odd grinned. "Friends? We're half-way to in-laws now!"

"And how, exactly, did this come about?" Ulrich asked, curious.

Odd just grinned sheepishly. "Well…I got a little ahead of myself. You see, Amy told me a month ago that she had a crush on your son," he began.

"Well, that's interesting. My son feels the same way!"

"He has a crush on himself? That's a bit strange…"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean," he muttered. "Anyway, we seem to have a case of the Jeremie-Aelita effect."

"No, more like the Ulrich-Yumi effect. But that's not quite right either, since they worked up their courage and told each other yesterday," Odd said. "That took less than a year, unlike the three years it took you and Yumi to hook up. Anyway, the way they got together was definitely an interesting story, involving a soccer game and a near-bodyslam."

"Hmm…so they're in love… You know, I think Rena also has a crush on someone…" Ulrich trailed off.

Odd smirked. "So does Eric. From what I've heard from Einstein and Princess, both of their children have crushes too."

"Do you think…" Ulrich began.

Odd chuckled. "Nah…what are the odds of that?"

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John walked into the cafeteria and grabbed a tray. He made his way through the line and sat down next to Eric, who was already on his second tray. His mouth was so stuffed with food that he couldn't close it.

"Haugh Gon," he said around his mouthful of food.

John raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" he asked.

Eric sighed and began to swallow his food. When his mouth was clear, he tried again.

"I said 'hi John,' okay?" he explained.

"Oh, hi," John replied. "I was just wondering, was it your idea?"

Eric glanced at his friend, confused. "Was what my idea?"

"Getting me and Amy to kiss like that."

Eric laughed. "Actually, no. At least, not like that. Sure, I planned to set you up, and I had an ingenious plan."

"Which was…?" John prompted.

"I was gonna get you guys to agree to a blind date and just have you two go to some really good restaurant and let you two handle it from there. But what happened the other day worked better."

"Do you still have the reservation?"

"Yeah. How did you know I made one?" Eric asked, curious.

"Lucky guess," John answered. "Well, maybe Amy and I will go anyway. I don't want to let it go to waste."

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"Ready for your first date?" Rena asked.

Amy nodded with a huge grin. All three of the girls were in their dorm.

Nina laughed at the dreamy expression on Amy's face. "I'm glad you finally got together," she said. "It took long enough."

Rena glanced at Nina with a hint of a smile. "Yeah, but not as long as others are taking…"

Amy looked at Rena, confused, then followed her eyes to Nina. She grinned. "Rena, you're planning something, aren't you?"

Rena just smiled. "Of course, and I'm pretty sure you know what it is…"

Nina looked back and forth between the two, confused and slightly apprehensive. She was about to ask what they were planning when she heard a knock on the door.

"That must be your date," Rena said, trying to steer the conversation away from what she was planning. She didn't want to reveal anything before she needed to, especially to Nina.

Amy opened the door, and sure enough, John was standing there. "Are you ready?" he asked.

Amy nodded and he grabbed her hand and led her out. Rena smiled as they left.

_Have fun, lovebirds._

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"Yumi!" Ulrich yelled from the kitchen.

"What!" she yelled from the bedroom.

"We're out of milk! I'm going to the store to get some!"

"Okay! See you soon!"

_We really need to get an intercom like Jeremie did, _he thought as he picked a jacket from the closet and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and a blond wig.

_Sometimes being famous is annoying,_ he thought to himself. If he went out without a disguise, tomorrow his name would be all over celebrity magazines.

_ULRICH STERN BUYS MILK!_ the headline would say. He chuckled at the absurd image as he got into his car and pulled out from the driveway.

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"So, what can I get for you?"

John and Amy looked up from their menus at the waitress. "I'll have the spaghetti," they said in unison. They both looked at each other and blushed.

The waitress smiled knowingly. "Would you two like to split an order?" she asked.

John turned back to the waitress and shrugged.

"Sure," he said.

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"milk…milk…milk…there it is!"

Ulrich opened the glass door and pulled out two cartons of milk. He put them in the cart with other odds and ends he had decided to buy and headed towards the cashier. He paid with cash and went out to the car to load the groceries. Just as he closed the trunk, he felt a breeze.

"Hey! Is that…"

He whirled around to see a group of girls pointing at him. He looked down at his feet. Just as he expected, the wig was lying there, having been blown off by the wind. Resigned to his fate, he glanced back up at the girls and did a double-take.

There were easily twice as many as before!

"It's Ulrich!" he heard one of them yell.

He had just enough time to curse under his breath before he was enveloped in a mob of fangirls

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John and Amy finished their meal and went for a walk in a nearby park. It was starting to get dark by now.

They walked along a winding path, holding hands and blushing lightly. John led her off the path and into the undergrowth. She didn't bother asking where they were going. She didn't care, as long as they went together.

_This is definitely a new feeling,_ she reflected. _I've never loved somebody so much before._

Finally, they reached the supposedly-inaccessible shore of the main lake, opposite of the public beach. They sat down and watched the reflected stars twinkle in its depths.

"It's so beautiful…how did you know about this place?" Amy asked.

"My parents brought me here a while ago. It's a nice way to enjoy the lake without having to deal with their fangirls and fanboys," he explained.

"It's nice, but we should really be getting back…" she trailed off as John shook his head.

"No, the others will cover for us."

"Are you su—"

Whatever she was about to say died in her throat as John pulled her into a passionate kiss.

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Yumi heard the door slam and looked up, seeing a disheveled Ulrich leaning against the door.

His shirt was ripped almost to shreds and his pants had long gashes in them. His hair was all messed up, and his face was covered by many different lip-prints in different colors of lipstick. He had a black eye and several bruises, as well as a scraped knee that was visible through one of the gashes in his pants.

"What happened to you?" Yumi asked.

Ulrich looked up at her and sighed.

"Stupid fangirls…" he moaned.

Yumi failed to hold in her laugh as she helped him limp to the couch.

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_John: Okay Rycr, I've had enough. You get your &$# out here right now and face this mob!_

_Rycr: Fine…fine…_

_Before you throw any sharp or rotten objects at me, I'm really really really really sorry. All I can say is that I'm going to finish this story as soon as I can. After this, I'm done with Code Lyoko for a while, at least until Season 3 is shown. (I know it sounds weird, but I'm actually looking forward to Monday!)_

_So, I have a few other fics in the works. I keep moving around among three or four main ones I'm working on, including my own original story. Once I finish this one, I'm taking a break until I get pretty far along in at least one of my stories, so I can update regularly._

_Oh, before I forget, I made a video using clips from the first three episodes of season 3 (my friend lives in France). It's really cool. Check it out at (get rid of the spaces, change the first dash to an equals sign and the second one to an underscore):_

_www . youtube . com / watch?v-AiP-FMOnwQI_

_So, please review and don't flame me for being absurdly late. I already know that, and I have my reasons. Unfortunately, they are too numerous to list here._


	20. First Love, Final Battle

_Yo, it's me! Yes, I'm **still** back. I'm going to finish this thing, hopefully before season 3 ends. Believe it or not, but I'm getting close. The big climax begins pretty soon, maybe even in this chapter! Read on to find out…_

_Anyway, this chapter's the big two-oh! That's right, I've reached chapter 20! I can pretty much guarantee that this story won't go higher than 25 chapters or so, unless I am suddenly inspired, which is unlikely._

_Anyway, I watched the first part of the prequel today. It was awesome! Ulrich was such a jerk back then. And Odd's hair…ewww…_

_So, I don't have much else to do but legal crap, so here you go!_

**_Disclaimer, etc: I don't own Code Lyoko. I'm glad too, because I never would have come up with something as ingenious as that show. However, I DO own my many OCs, as well as the basic plot, Kirsten's vehicle/powers, the kids' powers, and everything else that I own_**

_ON WITH THE STORY!_

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_Chapter 20 – First Love, Final Battle_

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"I wonder how the lovebirds are doing…"

Dan sighed as he looked at the energetic and slightly twitchy boy in front of him. "I'm sure John will tell you _all_ about it when he gets back."

"You mean _if_ he gets back," Eric corrected. "Maybe I should check the girls' dorm?"

Dan just rolled his eyes. "Haha…very funny. Just wait a little while. Maybe you should try going to sleep. You wouldn't know this, but it helps you to relax and pass the time during the night. If you can't sleep, will you at least shut up so I can?"

"Fine, I'll think about it, but I won't do it," Eric stubbornly replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm—" He suddenly stopped talking as Dan heard a muffled _whumpf_. Eric had fallen asleep after all. He just keeled over and fell onto his bed. He was asleep before he landed.

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Eric woke up in the morning and saw that John in fact _had_ come back at some point. He also saw a note on his nightstand.

"Huh?" he asked himself, still too tired to comprehend anything. Finally, he realized that he should probably read the note, and sat up to grab it

_Eric,_

_I've always love you, ever since I first met you. If you want to find out who I am, meet me by the soda machines after class today._

_Your Secret Admirer_

He smiled, then stood up and went to get dressed. Today would be an interesting day.

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Nina got out of class and glanced at the note she had been reading and rereading all day. She went to the courtyard and leaned against a tree near the soda machines. Nobody was there yet, so she just made herself comfortable.

_Who is it?_ she wondered. _Who is my secret admirer?_

She stared off into the forest, only coming back to reality when she heard footsteps behind her.

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Eric walked up to the soda machines and saw something move on the other side of a tree. Unknowingly echoing Nina's thoughts, he slowed and snuck up to the tree, peeking around it to see Nina staring into space.

"Nina?"

Nina started and turned around to see him. "Huh? Eric?"

"Erm…I'm supposed to meet somebody here…" Eric trailed off.

"Me too. Who are you meeting?" she asked.

Eric sighed. "Well," he began, "I got a letter this morning from somebody who likes me, and she told me to meet her here if I wanted to find out who she was."

Nina gasped. "Me too! I got one too!"

"Weird. Anyway, do you know who…wait…" He slapped his forehead and groaned. "That's what she meant by 'phase two'! Rena set us up!"

Nina just smiled. "Well then, let's make sure their efforts weren't in vain," she said quietly.

Eric stiffened. "What? What did you—" He was cut off when Nina pressed her lips to his. For a moment, he was completely stiff, then he started to kiss her back.

If was the best feeling either of them had ever experienced. Eric felt like he was flying, miles above it all. Nina felt a brightness grow within her, quickly filling up her entire being.

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, even something so wonderful as that kiss. As they broke off for air after what seemed like an eternity, their eyes never left each other.

"Oh…I…well…I…I lo—" Eric began to stutter, only to be cut off once again by Nina as she placed a finger over his lips.

"I know," she whispered. "I do too."

Eric smiled and relaxed. "Good. Ever since—woah!" he yelled, cutting himself off. Nina looked down and saw a series of XANA symbols flash across the ground, which quickly began to shake. They heard a scream as Rena fell from the nearest tree and landed on the ground next to them, smiling sheepishly.

There was another yell as Dan fell on top of her. He had somehow managed to position himself in the air so he would land without kneeing the girl in the stomach. Even so, their foreheads smacked together with an audible crack.

Another particularly violent shake threw John out of the tree, closely followed by Amy. John thought quickly and created a flat hovering rock beneath them before they began to fall to fast. The impact for both of them was harder than they would have liked, but not as bad as falling onto the ground. They both hopped off the rock as it disintegrated.

"To the factory!" John yelled over the immense noise. A moment later, he was already flying away on another flat rock. Rena took off with a blast of flame from her feet, and everybody else soon followed, glad to be off the shuddering ground. They flew up higher and saw, to nobody's surprise, that the earthquake was affecting the entire city, and several square miles of land beyond its borders.

As if that wasn't enough, Eric looked up to see a giant cyclone in front of him. "Great," he yelled over the clamor of the ground shaking and the cyclone ripping up the town. "Just what I wanted! A new way to die!"

John glanced at his friend for a moment. When he determined that Eric was just being sarcastic, he immediately took charge.

"It looks like XANA has pulled out all the stops!" he yelled. "I'll take care of the earthquake! Eric, you take the tornado!"

Eric nodded and flew towards the swirling vortex of dirt and debris. John dove for the ground to deal with the earthquake.

Amy glanced at her remaining friends. "Dan! Rena! You two head for the factory!" she shouted as loud as she could. "Nina and I will take care of the guys!"

Dan and Rena nodded and sped off to the factory.

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_There we go, chapter 20 is FINISHED! In case you haven't noticed, this is the beginning of the final battle. With XANA going all out like this, he knows the end is near. A few more plot twists await you in the coming chapters, one of them will be especially unexpected._

_If you have a guess about what is going to happen, go ahead and let me know. I always like to hear what my readers think! Even if you don't have a guess, review anyway and tell me what I'm doing well, as well as what I'm not doing so well._

_So please review, and I'll try to update soon!_

_Meanwhile, I'm working on three main new stories, all of which have small blurbs in my profile. I also have about a billion side projects that I occasionally work on whenever I remember them, and several are also listed on my profile. Most, if not all, of those will never see the light of day._

_Anyway, I'm sorry to say that none of my three new stories will be Code Lyoko stories. I probably won't write any CL stories for a long while. I want to branch out a bit._

_Season 3 is awesome so far, especially the prequel. Odd's old hairstyle freaks me out, but other than that, it was completely awesome! I can't wait until tomorrow! From what I've seen and heard, it's gonna be good!_

_Anyway, once again, I ask you to review._


	21. The Final Battle Begins

_Hey there! I took a short break, but I'm back! Here's the next chapter! I have to say, season 3 is definitely exceeding my expectations so far. I love it! And the buildup for the finale and season four is immense! I can't wait!_

_Anyway, I have a slim chance of finishing this before season three ends, because it's already more than half-over._

_The story is going into overdrive now, just to let you know. Lots of stuff in a little time. The end is near!_

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_Chapter 21 – The Final Battle Begins_

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Eric stared at the cyclone. "It's now or never," he whispered as he plunged in. He was caught in the whirling winds and tossed around like a rag doll. He curled up into a ball so he was less likely to be hit by flying debris, and concentrated hard.

He fought as hard as he could to gain control of the tornado. He figured that if he could just unwind the winds, the cyclone would dissipate. Unfortunately, he couldn't gain control of the tornado. He looked around and saw the dust carried by the wind forming XANA symbols all around him. XANA's control was just too strong.

"If I can't stop it, I just have to put it somewhere else!" he yelled. His voice was lost in the immense noise as he closed his eyes. His body began to glow like a yellow sun.

Then he opened the floodgates and invited the cyclone's power in.

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John was thrown up into the air by the quake for what seemed like the millionth time. He had tried to do what Eric was doing with the cyclone, but he couldn't remain in contact with the ground long enough.

Finally, he had an idea.

"This is going to hurt," he muttered as he concentrated. When he fell to the ground, he sank through it until he was completely submerged.

The underground was more chaotic that above ground, if that is possible. He quickly opened up to the quake. If he waited to long, the shifting ground would tear him apart.

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Nina gasped as she watched the cyclone. It had been shrinking for several seconds when it suddenly stopped and started growing again. She looked at its base to see that it had reached the water and was sucking it up. It became a massive waterspout and increased in size until it was even bigger than before!

"AMY! LOOK!" Nina yelled at the top of her lungs. Amy heard her and turned from where she had just seen John go underground. The moment she noticed the waterspout, she was gone, speeding towards it as fast as she could.

_Now it's my turn._

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Eric was dead tired. He had exhausted everything, and still the tornado had beaten him. Not only that, but it was now a waterspout! He was _way_ out of his league.

As he whirled around the waterspout, he felt a hand grab his own. He opened his eyes to see Amy holding on to him for dear life.

_Sis?_ he thought, too tired to speak.

"LET'S WORK TOGETHER!" she screamed as loud as she could.

He barely had the energy to nod. Together, they opened themselves up to the waterspout, sensing it, almost becoming part of it.

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Kirsten swore as she jumped out of her car. Odd jumped out the other side and they both ran to meet the other four on the side of the gridlocked highway. The cyclone and the earthquake weren't helping matters.

"We really should live closer," Kirsten said. "This is getting ridiculous."

"Well, there's only one way to get there," Ulrich said.

The others nodded and called up their vehicles.

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When they arrived at the factory, they sprinted for the elevator. The factory floor was beginning to catch fire for some reason. They didn't stop to see what was wrong, instead deciding to close the elevator door. As the door closed, everything outside of the elevator went black, but those in the elevator decided to ignore it and get on Lyoko as fast as possible.

Jeremie got out at the lab floor, and the rest went down to the scanners. He immediately sat down in his chair at the terminal. Before he started the virtualization process, he noticed a block of meaningless text on the screen.

_Cqn overy bntcfa vb enrayl fgne. Pf cf cqn tfan. Cqnan, lfd jvyy oveu cqn necaretn cf Bntcfa Mnaf, cqn cadn tfan fo Ylfxf. Ryy cjnyin zdbc fgne cqn uffa, reu ryy cjnyin zdbc pf cqafdpq vc. V jvyy jrvc fe cqn fcqna bvun. Qdaal, V treefc jrvc ofa yfep. Uf efc cal cf unrtcvircn r cfjna, rb KRER qrb uvbrsynu ryy fo cqnz rbvun oafz cqn fenb ve cqn cadn tfan._

_-Oarem Qfggna_

He shrugged and minimized it, determined to take a look at it after his friends were virtualized..

"Transfer Ulrich!" he began.

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Dan and Rena stopped as they saw the factory. Or rather, they saw where the factory _used_ to be. Instead, it was just a black void, a hemisphere of darkness surrounding the factory.

Dan thought fast and ran into the darkness. Instead of fading out, the moment he crossed the line he disappeared in the darkness.

"The factory's still there!" she heard Dan yell faintly.

"Dan!" Rena yelled. She was about to go in after him when she saw that the darkness was beginning to become distorted. It shrank and spiraled into Dan to reveal the factory.

They ran inside and saw a massive fire covering the entire factory floor.

"Holy crap!" Rena said. Without a second thought, she jumped into the inferno.

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Once the gang was virtualized, Jeremie told them where the tower was and began to decode the message. It was difficult, as it seemed to use some sort of letter-replacement cipher, but in no recognizable order.

"_KRER_…that probably means XANA…" he mumbled to himself as he worked out the code.

Finally he had it. He displayed the finished code on the screen and began to read it.

_The final sector is nearly open. Go to the core. There, you will find the entrance to Sector Zero, the true core of Lyoko. All twelve must open the door, and all twelve must go through it. I will wait on the other side. Hurry, I cannot wait for long. Do not try to deactivate a tower, as XANA has disabled all of them aside from the ones in the true core._

_-Franz Hopper_

He smiled. _Finally! Something helpful!_

He switched back to the map screen and located his friends next to the tower in the Forest Sector.

"We have a change of plans."

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In Lyoko, Ulrich looked up at the forest sky partially obscured by CG trees. "No, really? I never would have thought so. I mean, the tower just deactivated on its own, and now it's not even glowing at all!"

"Yes," Jeremie said. "All of the towers in the four sectors are disabled. XANA is attacking from somewhere else. Go to the edge of the sector so you can go to Carthage. I'll let you know what to do once you get there.

"Roger that," Kirsten said, grabbing the overglider. "We're off!"

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_Sorry guys, but that's it for now. I'll have more soon._

_Not much to say except REVIEW!_

_Also, even though I'm working on three new fics, I'm mainly working on one, called **The Darkest Power**. It's not a Code Lyoko fic. It's actually based on a book series by Eoin Colfer called **Artemis Fowl**. It's a really good series. If you haven't read it, go read it!_

_That's it for now! See you soon._


	22. Sector Zero

_Guess what? _

**_I'M BAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!! _**

_Anyway, here's the next chapter! Sorry for the excruciatingly long wait, but I haven't been able to write much for a while. I know you're tired of hearing this, but I'm going to finish this as soon as I can. _

_Anyway, I don't own Code Lyoko, but I own all my OCs, etc, etc, whatever... _

_On to the story!!!_

_

* * *

_

Chapter 22 – Sector Zero

* * *

Nina watched as the waterspout shrank, then disappeared, revealing Eric and Amy, both soaked to the skin and glowing brightly.

She noticed a dim spark of light off to the side. She glanced at it, wondering what it was. Suddenly it grew into a ball of light that would have blinded her if her powers didn't help by dimming her vision. She reached out to touch it, and it disappeared. She suddenly felt power flowing through her veins, a white hot light that filled her body. Soon she was glowing like the others.

* * *

Dan and Rena sped into the scanner room.

"Dad!" Dan yelled. "Rena and I are down by the scanners! The others are on the way!"

"Good," Jeremie said over the intercom. "Get in the scanners fast. Everybody needs to be on Lyoko today."

"Got it," Rena affirmed as she ran to a scanner. It shut the moment she was inside and lit up as usual. A moment later, both of them were in Lyoko.

* * *

Eric John, Amy, and Nina arrived at the factory, all glowing brightly. They sped straight into the elevator and went down, arriving at the scanner room moments later. They were taken aback to see Jeremie standing in the center of the triangle formed by the three scanners.

"Dad?" Nina asked, surprised to see him. "Why are you on this level?"

"All twelve of us need to be in Lyoko," he said. "That means I'm going to. Before you ask, I automated the virtualization procedure, so I don't need to be at the terminal. Now go! John, Eric, Amy, you guys go first. Nina and I will follow."

Amy nodded and stepped into a scanner. John and Eric leapt for theirs. The doors shut and the sound of air blowing could be heard by all of them.

"Detecting..." a computerized voice said over the intercom. "DNA match confirmed. Subjects identified as John, Eric, Amy. Initializing Virtualization Process."

"Transfer...Scanner...Virtualization," it said a moment later.

The sound died down and the doors opened to reveal empty scanners. Nina and her father were in them in just a moment. The doors closed again.

The voice went through the same speech again, just with different names. Then, with a whoosh of air, the last two Lyoko warriors left the real world, one of them for the first time in many years.

* * *

They all gathered at the edge of the sector. When Jeremie arrived, the six teenagers all stared at his costume. The adults took just one glance, to remind themselves what it looked like all those years ago.

He was wearing a blood-red short-sleeved shirt with chain mail over it, and black pants with armor plates on the front. His glasses were gone, and he had slightly more visible muscles. There was a crossbow strapped to his back and a quiver on his waist.

He pulled the crossbow from its bindings and loaded it. He smiled. He hadn't done that for years, but he still hadn't lost the knowledge.

_Like riding a bike,_ he thought. It was only when the others snickered slightly that he realized that he must have said it out loud.

"Wow, Jeremie!" Aelita complimented. "You look good!"

He blushed and all of the adults laughed. The teens just glanced at each other and shrugged.

"So, since you're here, Jeremie," Ulrich said, interrupting the quiet laughter, "how are we getting to sector five?"

Jeremie just grinned. "System! Activate the transporter!"

"Activating sector five transporter," the same robotic voice said. "Password entered…Scipio."

A moment later, the usual white sphere appeared and took them all, once again, to Carthage.

* * *

They landed in Carthage in the usual semi-spherical room. The kids stared at the spinning dome above them.

"Where are we?" Dan asked. "I've never seen this part of Lyoko before."

"This," Odd began, "is sector five! Also known as Carthage, home of Creepers, the Scyphozoa, and architecture that never really wants to stay the same! Isn't it amazing folks?"

"Shut up, Odd," they all said in unison.

"This is also the core—huh?" he cut himself off.

"Shut…up…Odd," Ulrich said slowly, as if he was talking to a three-year-old.

"Oh…" he mumbled. "Whatever…"

The dome started to slow its rotation. Within moments, it was completely stopped, and a doorway was in front of them.

"Let's go!" Kirsten shouted as she took the lead, sprinting down the hallway. She was soon passed by Ulrich, to her displeasure. He was supersprinting, as usual.

The others followed her, stopping only for a moment as the wall at the other end of the path opened. Then they ran down the stairs and ended up in a large room. Jeremie explained as much as he could about Carthage as they ran to the other side.

After going through a doorway, they reached another room. This one had no floor, except the ledge they were all standing on at the moment and another one in front of the door on the other side. A complicated system of conveyor belts crisscrossed over the gap. All of the belts were moving in different directions at different speeds.

"It's a puzzle," Dan said. "We have to pick the correct path to reach the other side."

Eric grinned. "Well, have fun you guys! I'm just going to fly over! Ha!"

He shot up into the air as Dan yelled for him to stop, and flew out over the belts. At first he seemed to be doing fine, but then he began to sink slowly, gradually speeding up. He fell flat on his face on a fast-moving belt, and was promptly deposited at their feet.

"I tried to tell you," Dan said. "There's no way it could be that easy."

Amy shook her head. "Oh, little bro, what am I going to do with you?" she asked with a sigh.

"We're twins!" Eric shouted, still angry that his plan hadn't worked.

"I'm older by five minutes," she replied. "Anyway, you should have known it wouldn't work."

"Why?" he asked.

"You bragged and made fun of us," she explained. "It's only logical that your plan wouldn't work, so we could make fun of you. And then there's Murphy's law…"

"Okay, okay," he muttered. "I get it."

Dan cleared his throat loudly to get their attention. "Excuse me, if you two are done bickering, it's about time that we crossed this. Follow us."

That said, he and his father leapt onto the first belt.

* * *

With Dan and Jeremie's help, they easily reached the other side. When they reached the other side of the room, Aelita tapped a switch on the wall and opened the doorway. They ran through it and the door shut, locking them in.

Nina walked forward to a rectangular panel that stuck out from the wall. It had 23 red lights on it, in two rows of eleven and twelve, and there were some strange symbols and slots on it.

"What's this?" she asked.

Jeremie walked up to the panel and took a close look at it. He looked at the shapes of the slots and smiled.

"We need to do a couple things to move on to sector zero," He explained. "First thing's first. Everybody, put your weapons into the corresponding slots. There are only eleven spots because Aelita doesn't have a weapon."

The others looked at him with confusion until he realized that he still hadn't told them about the message. He quickly filled them in.

"Oh," Odd realized, "so that's what the change of plans meant. It also explains why you're here."

"Exactly," Jeremie confirmed. "All twelve of us are needed to get to the sector."

Eric shrugged and took out his shuriken. He saw a slot that would accommodate them all, and pushed them in. One of the lights turned green, so the others realized that Jeremie was right. One by one, they followed suit. Soon all eleven lights in the first row were green.

It took them a while to figure out how to change the other lights, but when Rena found a symbol that looked like a flame, she touched it and another light turned green. The others found their corresponding symbols and touched them.

When all of the lights were green, the ground started to rumble. John caught Amy as she fell over, then fell over with her on top of him. There was a bright flash and they were gone from Carthage.

* * *

Nina was the first to open her eyes. She looked around and saw that she was in some place that looked even more like a videogame than Lyoko. The world occasionally blurred slightly as the sound of static made itself heard. She was on some sort of island, very far above the water. She turned around and saw a gigantic tower, at least ten times the size of the one on Lyoko. She turned back around and saw the others sprawled on the ground. One by one, they stood up and looked around, confused.

"Where are we?" John asked.

"Xanadu."

All twelve of them twitched and spun around to see the man who spoke to them. He was tall, with gray hair and a beard. He wore a suit of armor and carried a giant spear.

All of the adults except Kirsten gasped. "Franz…Franz Hopper?" Jeremie asked.

The man nodded. "Yes. I am Franz Hopper. I believe some of you may already know me, albeit indirectly. And let me tell you now, I'm not one of XANA's polymorphic clones, like last time you supposedly met me.

"Um…Odd?" Kirsten asked. "Who is he?"

"He's Franz Hopper," her husband answered. "He created Lyoko. He's also Aelita's father, and has been stuck in Lyoko for more than ten years."

"The cat-boy is correct," Franz said. "I've been trapped here, waiting and growing in power. This place is the core of Lyoko, yet it is not actually part of it. Jeremie, I believe you know what I am talking about."

Jeremie nodded and turned to the others. "Let me explain. I kept this secret so long that I forgot, but this place reminded me. Long before we discovered Lyoko, we discovered a different virtual world. _This_ virtual world, which is called Xanadu. It had a primitive form of XANA trapped within, though we just thought it was a part of the world. We fought it for two years, then I discovered the return to the past function and used it. Somewhere in transit, something went wrong, and everything changed. The entire world was different in small ways."

"For example, the school and the factory were built differently, and in a different part of France. All three of you lost your memory, but I remembered for some reason. I found the factory again, discovered Aelita, and decided to call you all in to see what was different about Xanadu. That's when I discovered that the world was now Lyoko, and that it was completely different from before, with actual monsters instead of these black cloud things on Xanadu—"

"Speaking of which," Ulrich said. "Here come some now!"

The others spun around and saw several black shadowy clouds speeding towards them. Ulrich was the first to pull out his weapons, dual katanas. He noticed that they were both glowing blue and had ones and zeroes running down them.

He gave it no thought, being used to strange things like that, and ran at a shadow, slicing it once. It disappeared.

"Well, that was easy," he said.

The others pulled out their weapons and fought the shadows. Franz proved indispensable in the fight, using his spear like a giant scythe, slicing the shadows open.

Eric saw a shadow pass through his stomach, leaving the area sparking and causing a mild pain.

"Be careful guys!" he yelled. "These things can still hurt us, and we don't know how much damage they cause!"

"Right, bro!" Amy yelled back. The others were too engaged in fighting to respond, but he was confident that they had heard him.

They made short work of the creatures and gathered back together, where Franz began to explain why he had called them there.

"Well, ever since I've been stuck here, my power has grown. I'm able to interface very well with the supercomputer. As a matter of fact, if it weren't for me, XANA would have a lot more power than I do. I've been taking about half of the power after each return to the past. This time, when XANA attacked, I had enough power to send you that message. And now that you are here, we can destroy XANA for good.

"There are thirteen towers in Xanadu. They are all activated to keep the AI in this system running. If they are all deactivated within seconds of each other in a certain order, XANA will be destroyed. That's why all of you had to be here, so that there would be thirteen of us. However, this sector will also be destroyed, so you have to get back to Carthage within seconds of the last tower deactivating…"

After that, he began to explain exactly how they would go about shutting the towers off.

* * *

_How's that, huh? More than two and a half thousand words! Is this an adequate apology for most, if not all, of the delays? If not, I'll try to make the next chapter just as long, but I'm not guaranteeing anything. Also, the next chapter should be the last. Yes, I know you want to see more (those of you who are left), but personally, I'm happy to see it end. I've been meaning to move on to other projects outside the Lyoko fandom, and now I can! _

_Anyway, just to let you know in advance, don't expect any more CL fics for a long time after I finish this one. Actually, don't expect **anything** at all for a while. I'm taking a break to work on some new stories. I'm going to try to finish them before posting them from now on. I mean, it's been nearly a year since I wrote chapter 1 of this story! Yes, I know that it's not long for some of you, but it's hard for me to stay inspired after that long. So the next chapter might not be that spectacular. I'm trying to come up with a final battle, because I originally was just going to end it with an easy run to the towers. That's just too boring. I need to figure out what happens. _

_So, I'm going to **try** to update soon, but I'm not guaranteeing anything, unlike all my broken promises before. I'll update when the next chapter is ready, and not a moment before. So don't hold your breath. _

_Anyway, please review! _


	23. The Power of the Heart

_Well, this chapter has an unexpected twist. It's probably the best chapter of the entire story. Too bad it's the last one as well. _

_Well, why are you still reading this? Go read the chapter! I'll talk more at the end. _

_**Disclaimer:** For what will probably be the last time, at least for a while, I don't own Code Lyoko. Got it? _

_On to the chapter! _

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_Chapter 23 – The Power of the Heart _

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Ulrich dropped to his knees, panting. He had been fighting the shadows, which Franz had started calling specters, for what felt like hours. Even though they were in a virtual world, they could still get tired eventually, and he was absolutely exhausted. He was alone, as everybody else was heading in different directions towards their assigned towers.

The specters were guarding all thirteen towers in Xanadu, forming an impenetrable barrier that all of the Lyoko warriors had to fight their way through. They fought fiercely for every inch.

"Damn it!" Ulrich swore as he leapt to his feet and cut down more specters. He had no idea how much health he had. All he could do was fight. And fight he did. He created clones whenever he could, but they were destroyed pretty quickly. And each time he triplicated, he lost health and energy. The tower, surrounded with its strange black aura, seemed to be moving away from him as he moved towards it.

He wished fervently for his overbike, but there was no way to get it in here. He resolved to play as well as he could with the cards he was dealt, and leapt into the fray.

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Yumi was fighting well, and was one of the few actually gaining ground. Her fans expertly flew around her, occasionally nudged by her telekinesis. The specters were continuously cut back.

However, she was still rapidly losing energy, and the range of her fans continued to decrease. She still pushed on though, knowing that this was going to be the end of their long war against XANA, one way or another.

The one thing she didn't know, however, was which way the war would go. Who would win? Would she drop from exhaustion before she could reach the tower? Even if she did, would the others reach theirs in time? These were questions that would only be answered after the battle was over, and not a moment before.

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Odd did his best to avoid many confrontations. He had used up a large amount of arrows, and was unsure of his remaining supply of ammunition. He leapt through gaps between the specters, and was soon submerged in shadow. He occasionally slashed the shapeless monstrosities with his claws, but did little damage that way.

Still he managed to force his way towards the tower, wishing all the way for his overboard. With it, he would have been able to just zoom through the specters and straight on to the tower. Still, he was confined to his own two feet, and he fought as well as he could.

However, he was loosing energy fast. He began to slow down as his reaction time dropped. His battle was a loosing one, and it was only a matter of time before he was subdued by XANA's shadow.

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Kirsten was fighting expertly, wielding her blue lasers with the precision of a masterful sniper. She blew holes in the mass of specters before her, leaping through them as well as she could. Her body was continuously glowing blue as she healed herself and protected herself from harm.

With a growl she carved yet another hole in a shade in front of her and ran through the opening. Her view of the tower was completely obscured by the shadows, and she had no way to be sure that she was even heading in the right direction.

She had been fighting for what felt like days, and her strength was waning. It was only a matter of time before she lost her battle against her own weariness.

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Jeremie, though he had almost never been to Lyoko, was still fighting very well. He shot his crossbow at all of the specters surrounding him, reloading in the blink of an eye and recovering any ammunition nearby. His Lyoko power allowed him to freeze time for just a few seconds, so he could freeze his target and shoot it accurately.

Like the others though, his strength was fading. It was only a matter of time before his power failed and he was overwhelmed.

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Aelita had no weapon, and was using her power to shield herself as she forced her way through the mass of shadows. Ulrich had let her borrow one of his two katanas, but it had been forced out of her hand a long time ago. Her gaiakinesis was sapping her strength at an alarming rate.

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It was the same for everybody. Even Franz, who had been stuck fighting in Xanadu for more than twenty years, was having trouble. XANA was just too strong. The virus was using all of its power in this final struggle, just as the thirteen fighters were as well.

Sooner or later, something would have to give.

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And then, as Nina was fighting, the specters changed tactics. Instead of forming a wall, they clumped together into a ball and sped at her. She shot the shape with arrows and beams of burning light, but couldn't destroy all of them. A dark tendril of shadow poked its way out of the mass and headed straight for her.

It dodged all of her attacks and finally reached its target. It went into her through her ears and reached her virtual mind. She collapsed to the ground, holding her head and groaning in pain, despite the inhibitors that were supposed to block serious pain in the virtual world.

Her eyes flickered open as she stared at the ground without seeing anything. Her dark pupils separated into two sets of three rings, then went back to their normal shape. They flickered back and forth between these two shapes until her pain subsided.

_You are weak,_ she heard a male voice speak within her mind, _weaker than all of the others. _

She stood calmly and looked around. Her pupils, shaped like XANA's symbol, took in the surroundings and looked for the others. Her mind was now completely buried under XANA's power.

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"Nina?! What the hell are you doing here?!" Rena yelled to her friend and roommate. "Get back to your tower!"

Nina still approached her, walking slowly, but surely. Rena was about to yell again when Nina raised her hand and sent a bolt of light at her. She dodged just in time and swore at her friend, wondering what had gotten into her.

Then she made the mistake of getting too close. Seeing the mark of XANA in her friend's eyes made her freeze for just a fraction of a second, but that was all Nina needed to strike the final blow. Instead of disappearing, Rena fell to the ground, not breathing. Instead of devirtualizing when her virtual body died, she was still attached, and she died as well.

One by one, Nina, under the influence of XANA, killed all of her teammates, even Franz Hopper.

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Subdued by XANA, Nina's mind was in a comatose state. She was unaware of what her body was doing. XANA's power kept her separate, detached from what was going on outside of her body. She dreamed.

_"Where are you?!" she cried. She was searching desperately for something, though she did not know what it was. "I can't find you!" _

_"I am here," a male voice whispered. She recognized it as Eric's. "I am waiting for you." _

_"How do I find you?" she asked. Before she even finished the question, she realized what the answer was. _

_"You already know how. Now you just need the strength to do it." _

_"ERIC!!!" _

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Nina suddenly saw through her own eyes again, though she was not able to control her actions. She saw Eric lying on the ground in front of her.

_NO!!!_ she screamed in her mind.

_Shut up, you insolent little girl, _a voice replied. _All of your friends are gone, and there is nothing you can do to stop me now._

She cried for what seemed like years, weeping over her friends. However, her eyes, still controlled by XANA, did not shed a single tear.

_"How do I find you?" _

She gasped within her mind. That question was the one she wanted answered now.

_"You already know how. Now you just need the strength to do it."_

Her despair quickly became anger. This was all XANA's fault!

With a cry of immense fury, she ripped her body out of XANA's control and fell to the ground. Her eyes still did not shed a tear.

"You…" she muttered as she stood up slowly. Her body began to glow so bright that she was blinding to anybody who would look at her.

"YOU BASTARD!!!" she screamed as the light within her body burst free and flowed in every direction. With nowhere to do, the specters were pierced by the light and destroyed utterly. The light was then absorbed into her friends, her family, and Franz Hopper, and they all also began to glow.

Nina fell to the ground, tears now flowing freely. Her weeping wouldn't last long though, because she heard a voice she recognized.

"Nina?"

She looked up, her eyes still brimming with tears, and smiled to see her boyfriend, Eric, sitting up and looking at her.

"Eric?" she asked, like it was too good to be true. "You're…back!"

"I…" he trailed off. "I thought I was dead… I was floating away from my body, but then this…light appeared and pulled me back. It felt like…like you…"

She tried to say something, but just laughed and hugged him tightly.

"I almost lost you," she whispered. He smiled and pushed her back slightly. She was disappointed for a second, until her pressed his lips to hers. And so, they kissed.

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Eventually, they separated and Nina went back to her tower. They were all disabled, the black aura disappearing, never to come back.

They met up again near the portal to Carthage, as the entire sector began to shake. Nina told the others what had happened, and apologized. They others rapidly told her that she had nothing to be sorry for. Then they stepped back through the portal.

Soon, Aelita and Franz were the only two left. She turned to her father and raised an eyebrow. He didn't look like he was about to follow her through the portal.

"Aren't you coming?" she asked him.

"No. I am tied to this sector too much. I've been here for more than two decades now, and I cannot easily leave," he answered. "Go! Quickly! Xanadu is falling apart!"

"What about you?"

He smiled wistfully. "I was the creator of Xanadu. A captain always goes down with his ship."

Aelita sighed quietly and hugged him. She didn't trust her voice enough to speak. She had just been reunited with her father for the first time in more than twenty years, and just like that, he was going to be ripped away again!

Still, she knew what she had to do. She tried to smile as she stepped through the portal and followed her friends and family.

"Where is Franz?" Jeremie asked a few minutes after she came through.

"He's," she replied slowly. "He's not coming."

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After that, they were devirtualized, and Jeremie ran one last scan on the supercomputer, just in case. Moments later, he sighed. XANA was truly gone, as was its home, Xanadu.

Franz was gone too, his virtual self destroyed during the collapse of sector zero. Jeremie sighed and stood up to relay the news to the others.

He turned off the supercomputer for what he hoped would be the last time.

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Two years later, a woman with pink hair stood on the bridge, gazing down at the memorial inscription below.

_Heroes are created, not born. Six heroes were created here. This is also where they fought their final battle. They were brave, strong, and cunning. They will be remembered as our saviors. _

"But we weren't remembered," she said quietly. "All those years ago, we saved the world once, and they forgot what happened. Then we saved it again two years ago, and nobody even knows the sacrifices we made."

"That's what makes a true hero," somebody said behind her. She turned around to see a blond-haired man. She smiled slightly and turned back to the memorial. Carved roughly beneath the previous words was another inscription.

_A great man died here. He is unknown to the world, remembered only by a few. But the twelve who know of him will remember his sacrifices forever._

She dropped a single white rose on the memorial stone, then turned and grasped her husband's hand.

"Now, with that behind us," she said. "We will look to the future, but never forget the past."

"Of course, Aelita," Jeremie replied. "We will never forget."

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_So? Was it good? What do you think? Was it a fitting end? _

_Anyway, this is probably the last thing I'm going to post for a while. I'm taking a break to work on some projects that I've been writing on and off while trying to juggle this story and school at the same time. Now that this is done, I'm free to work on other things. _

_As for Code Lyoko, I'm pretty much done with it. There may be oneshots in the future, but no more big stories like this one. Maybe season 4 will change my mind, but I'm pretty sure that I'm done with Code Lyoko. I'm moving on into other fandoms, and into my own original writing. _

_I'm sad to see this story end, yet I'm glad it's finally over. I don't have this hanging over my head any more, so I'm free to work on whatever I want. I've been neglecting my DeviantArt lately, so maybe I'll draw some more stuff. Who knows? _

_I don't know what I'll be doing next, but I'm hoping that you guys will come along for the ride when I start my next project. See you then! _


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